LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap.PA.. Copyright No 

Sliell.£_7_I 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




1 



CHARLES J. FOWLER. 



Back to Pentecost 



BY 



CHARLES J. EOWLER 

President of the National Association for the 
Promotion of Holiness 



" Where Christian perfection is not strongly and explicitly preached, 
there is seldom any remarkable blessing from God; and, consequently, 
little addition to the society, and little life in the members of it. There- 
fore, if Jacob Rowell is grown faint, and says but little about it, do ' you 
supply his lack of service."— John Wesley. 



Published by 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Ltd. 

921 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA PA 

<~~ \ 



43517 

Library of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
SEP 5 1900 

CepyrffM wtry 
SECOND COPY. 

DeKverad to 

ORDER DIVISION, 

SEP 8 1900 



COPYRIGHT, 1900. 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Ltd., 

921 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 






74335 












To My Wife and Children 

To whom my being afield has meant so much, 

this little book is most affectionately 

dedicated. 



"As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part 
be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike."— King David. 



CHARLES J. FOWLER, 

HAVERHILL, MASS. 



JUNE ist, 1900. 



CONTENTS. 

I. Back 7 

II. The Secret ... 25 

III. Simon Magus 41 

IV. The Second Change 59 

V. The Two Baptisms 77 

VI, The Two Baptisms Concluded 91 

VII. Be Filled in 

VIII. Keeping The Body Under. 123 






Back to Pentecost. 



BHCK 



Why back? Because we have gotten away 
from Pentecost. This is not a pleasant sugges- 
tion; yet it is true. We need to face the facts 
that we may be bettered. 

We mean by Pentecost what the ISTew Testa- 
ment means by it — what Methodism has always 
meant by it — we mean that work of grace one 
needs after his regeneration, and may have, and 
what is known in theology as 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 

From this state and standard the Church has 
to no little extent fallen and turned aside. 

We do not mean the churches that have once 
held this doctrine and urged this experience 
have formally adopted new standards, that they 
have changed their statements excathedra, but 

7 



Back to Pentecost 

we do mean this has been done virtually. Pente- 
cost has been the inspiration of the true Church. 
There it had its birth. Without it our fathers 
never were fired and filled to accomplish the mar- 
vels of Christian history. Aggressive Christian- 
ity has meant tarrying in Jerusalem until "en- 
dued with power from on high." 

It should be our fear, as it will be our failure, 
to depart from this divine idea. Pentecost is not 
having that emphasis in the present it has had 
in the past; it is not having that place in our 
thought, and in our teaching, and in our faith it 
had with the fathers: it is not too much to say 
that we are in danger of adopting 

OTHEE IDEALS 

than the Pentecost. Here is no little peril. 
There is not a little danger that we may regard 
some thing, or some things sufficient, and retire 
this wondrous spiritual qualification upon which 
God conditions genuine Christian success. 

TTe are in danger from the numerical ideal 
and the social. Numbers, hosts, as a mere de- 
nominational following avail nothing; indeed, 
the social status of the crowd is of little moment 

8 



Back 

A few of the right kind have always won, and 
always will; and the rest are but a promiscuous 
lot of camp-followers, having no purpose nor 
power. 

Numbers do not determine genuine denom- 
inational character, nor do they secure genuine 
denominational conquest. If we can command 
people, many; if our churches are well attended 
and our Sunday-school rooms are filled; if the 
attention of the community is toward us and we 
are spoken of as "the Church here;" if the elite 
of the town are in our congregations, and the 
influential attend upon our ministry, it may 
be said that these things, though never to be 
ignored, do never evidence a successful ministry 
or membership; do not secure the ends for which 
the Church was given, nor for which Christ died. 

Yet these things are sought as though they 
were ends — the ends to be secured. So we are 
saying that there is danger that this may become, 
practically, our ideal of our responsibility. 

BURNING INCENSE 

to statistics does not seem to propitiate the gods. 
Not that we should not seek the masses and in- 



Back to Pentecost 

deed the classes; but for no other purpose than 
to gather of every kind. Who of us has not been 
tempted to self-gratulation, when such popular 
ends as we have just enumerated have been 
secured, though there have been manifestly an 
absence of spiritual results? 

The Church is a big thing and too big for the 
kind. It would be larger if it were smaller. 
IVTere bulk is in the way. Probably few pastors 
but would have a better church if it were less 
in numbers. Nothing that a great church now 
needs as much as a revival of subtraction. And 
this is said in seriousness; not in playfulness. 
Unless we can raise the average of moral worth 
and spiritual power in our membership, it be- 
comes a dangerous matter to add more. The 
likelihood is it will but swell the worthless ma- 
jority rather than add to the worthy minority. 

This is not to be construed as discouraging 
effort to get men saved and added to the Church, 
as it is said as a word of warning, and a word to 
stimulate us and our Israel to seek that spiritual 
affusion for ourselves and for them, which shall 
make the desert "rejoice and blossom as the 



10 



Back 

THE MONEY IDEAL 

is another one of our perils. Seeking and secur- 
ing people of wealth, while it has its advantages, 
has alarming disadvantages. John Wesley 
warned the early Methodists against a policy 
that would make "rich men a necessity" to us. 
The mission of the Church is world-wide and 
must ignore no class, hence includes the rich; 
but never for wealth's sake. To divide com- 
munity into three classes — the low class, the 
high class and the great middle class — it will 
be seen that whatever the mission of the Church 
is theoretically, it practically is to the two last 
named and not to the first. Whatever we have 
been or done; whatever we should not or should 
do, we are not now giving attention to the low 
classes — the slums. Our attention is upon the 
other classes, with a special eye on the rich. 

"Do not rich men oppress you?" Of all classes 
that endanger us, this is the class. We are not 
saying they are the most dangerous class to com- 
munity and society as a whole, but the influence 
of the wealthy class is more dangerous to the 
Church and ministry than that of any other. 

No class, likely, of the three we mention is 

11 



Back to Pentecost 

so little evangelized. Mark you, we do not say 
so little churched. We hear it said: "It takes 
great grace to enable one to go down into the 
lowest places and present Christ." Yes, it does; 
but it takes more to go up into the high places 
and present Him. The one class is in a recog- 
nized sense below as to social scale, and the 
other is above. We contend that the average 
minister that tries it, finds this statement true. 
Is it as easy to rebuke sin in a rich man as in a 
poor man? Is it as easy to correct, to instruct, 
or even seek to encourage the rich as the poor? 
We pity the rich. As a class they are to be 
pitied. In their relation to the kingdom of 
heaven they have always been the 

FARTHEST OFF. 

"How hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of God." They are in our 
congregations and in our membership, and they 
have less done for them, in a spiritual way, than 
any other class there. 

We are not saying they wish it so, but that it 
is so ; we are not saying they may not be reached. 

12 



Back 

but that they are not; we are not saying they put 
us off from them, we are saying we do not gei: 
hold of them in a spiritual way. So they are in 
peril. 

We are seeking the rich and thus endanger 
ourselves and our people. Why seeking them? 
Manifestly not so much to save them as to use 
them; not so much to be a help to them as that 
they shall be a help to us. In what sense a help? 
Particularly in a temporal sense. And here is 
our peril. Which of two classes will exert the 
widest influence upon our congregations, the 
common laboring class, though worldly, or the 
wealthy class, who may be worldly? As preach- 
ers we are not in danger of being put into the 
vest-pocket of that humble mechanic in our 
official board, as we are in danger of being put 
into the pocket of that man of wealth. 

The Church can no longer say, "Silver and 
gold have I none," for the CLurch is great nu- 
mercially, and great financially; the Church 
has many millions, not only, but many million- 
aires. 

It is striking what the term "rich" carries, as 
to its influence! How the rich are deferred to, 

13 



Back to Pentecost 

and how they have their say, even though they 
do not put in their money. The very fact that 
they are rich seems to be enough for us to con- 
fer and defer, and cause the people to do them 
pleasure. 

No class in the Church and congregation that 
do as little "according to their ability" as the 
rich. There are plenty of men in Methodism 
who could pay the missionary debt any day, and 
not feel it; but it is left for the humble offerers, 
in the main, to struggle with. How earnestly 
should we seek this poor-rich class to save them ; 
how hastily should we find them that they may 
find Him; how lovingly should we press upon 
them the value of the true riches! God grant 
us to see their place and their peril! God give 
us their souls in preference to their shekels! 
God make us all things to all that we may by all 
means save some. 

THE EDUCATION-IDEAL. 

Let us, for the present, have the attention of 
our Methodist constituency. Methodism has up- 
ward of two hundred schools of high grade; 

14 



Back 

schools ranging from the college-preparatory to 
the university. For this great educational oppor- 
tunity we are and should be thankful. We are 
also to have in the capital city of our nation a 
great university, at the expense of ten millions of 
dollars. Under our own vine and fig-tree we pro- 
pose to furnish that post-graduate education, 
equal to that given at the great university-cen- 
ters of the old world. 

While these are great opportunities of which 
great use can and will be made, it is at the same 
time something of a temptation which endan- 
gers us, and from which we have not entirely 
escaped. 

Lest we prejudice some minds so they will 
receive with difficulty our farther suggestions, 
by our leaving an impression we do not favor 
education, or higher education, we stop to say 
we could not allow ourselves to be so construed. 
We are rather suggesting our danger of making 
intellectual equipment take the place of the 
Spirit's enduement; allowing educational furn- 
ishing to be a substitute for the Pentecost. 

In not a few of our Conferences, it is an un- 
written law, not to say a written one, that no 

15 



Back to Pentecost 

young man can now be admitted who has nor 

had in onr c 
al seminaries. 

time wl 
sed in ministerial training 
mditions are pi 
I a fuller ii. 

tan in the ps 
pres v ; but that only tli - 

Qger mid pli 
ur pulpi lent 

all our history, put r as men who fl 

S Qg in all :" 

bestsei -hat 

- he s] irit- 
ual furnishing 25 -rial, and b: the 

- 

~:ty-born 
had men amongst us trail 

- 
quests n s :en whom G 

.irally ; - \: — men 

wl. : means providen- 

•vho have never been 
t e eallec 



Back 

WOK TO U8 

in our God -giver mission — whatever mission 

others may think they have — woo to us when 
are betrayed into this reversal of historic and 
divine order of things — retiring the spiritual 
and divine, as absolutely essential unto a dis- 
charge of our personal and denominational re- 
sponsibility, and putting in its place the natural 
and the human. 

A very distinguished educator in theological 
circles — a neighbor of ours in New England — 
recently delivered an address before a notable 
body in New York City on the "Minister De- 
manded by the Times." He described such a 
minister as "the Christian gentleman, theolog- 
ically educated, and a master of the art of 
speaking." 

Do we take in this remarkable utterance? Do 
wo not have here what we are calling an ideal? 
Indeed, one of our great Church papers, men- 
tioning this speech and with seeming approval, 
titles the address, "The Ideal Minister." 

To know and practice what belongs to polite 

ciety; to have acquaintance with theology; to 
l>o a master in speech, such as can be acquired 

17 



Back to Pentecost 

as an art. is to be the minister the rime- demand : 
that is success ! 

If this matter were not serious, this prattling 
would be ludicrous. This distinguished profes- 
sor belongs to a Christian denomination that 
ranks almost above all others, in having min- 
isters of such qualifications. Their preacher- 
are proverbially Christian gentlemen: they are 
alvrays theologically educated: and. though the 
third term is difficult to define, they are mas- 
ters of the art of -peaking, if especially is 
meant by this latter term acquaintance with 
grammar and rhetoric and the principles of 
elocution. Mark! the Church this mam repre- 
sents is a Protestant Evangelical Church. Is 
such a Church called to save men? Let us see 
how a Church with such a ministry, to a great 
extent, as he describes, gets on in that busim 
In our own State of Massachusetts, in a late year, 
there were 110 of these churches that had 
additions whatever for that entire year. The 
same year, throughout that denomination as a 
vdiole. there were oveT 8,000 churches that did 
not add a mend 






Back 

AGGRESSIVE EVANGELISM. 

It may be said that this people do not repre- 
sent the most aggressive form of evangelical 
faith. Grant this. But Methodism does. 
Methodism stands for nothing as much as it 
stands for salvation. It might almost be said 
it stands for this only. Here our record has been 
unprecedented. How have we had such a soul- 
saving service? By giving attention to salva- 
tion, surely, with a determined purpose that 
nothing should take its place! 

John Wesley said: "Gaining knowledge is a 
good thing, but saving souls is a better." Our 
record to-day as to soul-saving is not enviable 
— it is not at all creditable to us as an agency of 
evangelism. Our showing in the few past years 
is not a little unsatisfactory to all serious peo- 
ple, and it certainly is humiliating to our de- 
nomination. Our gains in 1898 were less than 
an average of two for each itinerant preacher — 
only about one and a quarter for each of our 
churches. For the ministers of Methodism in 
that year only about one each was added to the 
Church, to reckon nothing whatever for the 
millions of members! 

19 



Back to Pentecost 

But, oli! tlie showing of 1899. We are con- 
fronted with startling facts ! Our gains for this 
last year on an average are less than one for 
every three churches. 

How is this, relatively? AYhat have we been 
doing in earlier years? From the organization 
of Methodism in 1766 to the Christmas Confer- 
ence in 1784 — eighteen years — we made a gain 
of 93-100 of 1 per member, which was prac- 
tically 1 to 1, i. e., for every member one was 
added each year; or in other words, we doubled 
our membership each year for eighteen years. 

From 1784 for the next fifty years and to 
within the memory of people now living, we 
made an average gain yearly of 1 to 3; but in 

1896 we gained 1 to 58. 

This was appalling. But see the figures for 

1897 and we have gained in our American or 
home Methodism 14,384, or 1 to about 187. 
One net gain for 187 ministers and members! 
187 of us to make an addition of 1 ! But alas! 
for 1899 it takes about 390 ministers and mem- 
bers to get one addition to the Methodist Church r 

Is this apostolic? Is this historic Methodism? 

20 



Back 

Is this saving the world? Is this satisfactory to 
serious souls? How can this be explained except 
that the fire has died down or out upon our 
altars. No wonder the Bishops have sounded 
a note of alarm, excathedra, and called for a 
season of special prayer and fasting. 

And, mark you, this is saying nothing about 
the quality of these additions. Every one 
knows that we are strongly tempted to add to 
our membership those we are convinced are not 
suitable candidates for Church-connection. The 
reasons are many, and we need not enumerate 
them. The fact is, we have fallen upon Church- 
joining times. To bring people into the Church 
seems to be an end, in many quarters. We 
Methodist preachers who are supposed to know 
how to save souls; who are supposed to know 
what travail of soul for lost men means; we men 
are allowing the modern, burdenless, spiritless, 
hold-up-the-hand and card-signing revival to be 
a substitute for our old-fashioned "protracted 
meeting," when the fathers and mothers wept 
and prayed till the heavens opened and God in 
power swept the place, when sinners were 
"struck under conviction," and cried for mercy 

21 



Back to Pentecost 

until God came, and they knew salvation liad 
come to their poor lost souls. 

POOR APOLOGY. 

It is a poor apology for our lack of spiritual 
conquests to fall back upon our general work in 
education, civic reforms and the like. This 
work, as we have been insisting, can never be 
the true and leading work of any Church of 
Christ. Is our work on the plane of the natural, 
merely? Is the work which can be done by 
those who even discard our spiritual religion, 
the work God calls the Church to do? Civic 
reforms can be promoted and conserved, and 
are, by men not religious, not to say pious. Is 
our work no higher than that? And much, very 
much, of that which passes with us as religious 
education does not demand nor have personal 
piety to carry it on. No, we all know our mis- 
sion, though including all this, is higher and 
diviner — ours is a mission of salvation. For 
this, supernatural furnishing only will do! 
Who is sufficient for these things? That man 
only, who is Spirit-endowed, Spirit-led, and 
Spirit-sustained, A humble Salvation Army 

88 



Back 

lass, who reads her native language with diffi- 
culty, and who does not know a noun from a 
verb, or an interrogation from an exclamation 
point, but who is full of sense and the Holy 
Ghost, is better fitted to do salvation work, which 
is the all important work committed to us, than 
is the best trained man in the whole Church 
who is destitute of this heavenly furnishing! 

This furnishing has been ours! Our fathers 
shared in Pentecost — they tarried and were en- 
dued "with power from on high." Methodism 
has had high spiritual equipment. If we lose 
this, whatever else we may have, we are "a 
fallen people." We shall be a hissing and a 
by- word ! 

No day in Methodist history, when, as to 
human attainments, have we had the ministry 
we now have. Our facilities are in advance of 
those of our fathers. Given the same, or larger 
spiritual endowment — and the larger is our 
privilege — and we can do what God, we believe, 
raised up this great Church to do, take this world 
for Christ. "We cry in the ears of this Church 
of the millions, "Put on thy strength, O Zion." 
Let the Church marshal, as she can, her con- 

S3 



Back to Pentecost 

quering battalions with the holy determination 
with which she is capable, and God will send 
her against the dark forces of sin with such a 
shock of battle as shall give the enemy to our 
Lord! 

"Learning, nor great deeds, nor high moral, 
physical, or other qualities, of any self -origi- 
nated or related influence on the human side 
will bring men to their best; he only is the true 
king who by his communion with God has re- 
ceived 'power from on high.' " 

This is Pentecost! 



U 



THE SECRET. 

"And when He is come, He will reprove the 
world of sin and of rightousness, and of judg- 
ment." John xvi: 8. 

The Church is serious. Its genuine members 
are far from indifferent concerning duty and 
destiny. 

Not only so, the Church deplores the presence 
of indifference in the individual or in the com- 
munity, and hails with lively interest that which 
removes it and brings man to awakening relative 
to the things of God. 

A TEST. 

This is really a test of genuine discipleship. 
Not a little of profession and procession in re- 
ligious matters carries no proof of real value. 
To belong to the Church is no test of disciple- 
ship. To attend its services, and share in them 
quite regularly, and even religiously, does not 
prove more than outward religiousness; for all 
may be done with no heart-love and life; but to 

25 



Back to Pentecost 

be careful and prayerful concerning one's rela- 
tion to God evidences a genuine heart-state. 

To create seriousness in community is to effect 
their salvation. Xone can look at God's truth, 
as truth, and not tremble. The great verities of 
sin and righteousness, of heaven and hell, are too 
momentous to be passed by in carelessness when 
seen in their true meaning. Xone can see the 
nature of sin and its awful peril; none can have 
a vision of righteousness and its necessity; none 
can look into hell and have some appreciation 
of its eternal torments, and believe in the reality 
of heaven, with its glories, and be unmoved. 

Such an awakening means salvation. Few 
such go on in sin. The peril is too real; the cost 
too great; the end too sure. Deeply awakened 
souls, as a rule, flee to Christ. You and I did. 
So do others. 

Of course men may stave off conviction and 
resist all light; but few do. The awakening we 
are mentioning is too personal and powerful to 
brook either doubt or delay. Men yield to God, 
and hurry about it when moved as some of us 
were, and as God proposes to move men, 



3<j 



The Secret 

THE SECRET. 

The secret of this great awakening is in the 
words before ns. "He will reprove." A person, 
none other than God, the Holy Ghost. His per- 
sonal and powerful ministry is directly brought 
before us. He will reprove. The word is strong. 
It points to both a very personal and powerful 
work. No one word just gives the meaning of 
the original. It means to personally tell one his 
fault with convincing power and convict him. 

To remember who is to do this is to readily 
believe it can be done. "He," the Comforter, 
the Spirit of Truth, God. He will reprove. 
Personality is very emphatic. The pronoun 
(ekinos) means that male person. 

I remember His powerful ministry of awaken- 
ing in my own soul. One night, having retired, 
I was suddenly awakened as by some one in my 
room. I was seized by a sudden trembling, and 
a peculiar electric sensation passed over my en- 
tire body. I shook as with ague. What a sense 
of sin possessed me! I got from my bed and 
knelt in the, darkness. Not to pray; I had not 
then decided to do that. But I soon did. That 
fearful revelation of sin hurried me to Christ. 

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Back to Pentecost 

And what was it all? The reproof by the Holy 
Ghost. He told me of my sin! I soon saw 
clearly who had done all this. God in mercy 
searched me out. 

THE SECRET OF THE SECRET. 

This finding the world and awakening it is 
sharply conditioned. "When He is come." 
How come? Come to whom? The connection 
makes it clear. Jesus says here: "It is expedi- 
ent for you that I go away; for if I go not away, 
the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I 
depart, I will send Him unto you." Unto you. 
Twice in this seventh verse He says "unto you." 
Then He says: "And when He is come [unto 
you] He will reprove the world." 

There are two classess here. The "?/cm"-class 
and the "world" -class — disciples, Christians, the 
Church upon the one hand, and the sinners, the 
lost, the world on the other. When He is come 
to the disciples, to the Church, then he will reach 
the world. The one conditions the other. "Who 
fails to see this? Nothing could be plainer. 
There is then a Spirit-ministry to the Church, 

28 



The Secret 

which must precede his great awakening-coming 
to the world! 

And this coming to His people is not sovereign 
and unconditional — His work apart from theirs; 
it is rather gracious and conditional. Jesus, re- 
ferring to this same coming, clearly conditions 
it upon the disciples tarrying until they "be en- 
dued with power from on high." Luke says 
again that Jesus commanded them not to "de- 
part from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise 
of the Father." And this was not limited to 
them and to their times, for Luke says again: 
"The promise is unto you and to your children, 
and to all that are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our God shall call." 

FORCE. 

That there is a coming to God's people prior 
to the Spirit's having an opportunity to awaken 
the outside world is most clear; what is it? What 
the force of this language, w 7 hen He is come to 
you? A single verse more from Luke seems to 
make it all clear: "Ye shall receive power, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye 
shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, 

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Back to Pentecost 

and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
uttermost part of the earth." Power. This is 
the key-word. "Ye shall receive power" 

"What is this? What power? Not power to 
make them genuine disciples. They were that 
already. John contrasts them with the world, 
and says they may receive the Comforter because 
they are loving Christ and keeping His com- 
mandments, but the world cannot receive Him. 
(John xiv: 15-17.) For this assured power was 
not unto genuine discipleship. 

Neither was it power to give them some power. 
They already had some. And not a little. 
"He gave them power against unclean spirits, 
to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sick- 
ness, and all manner of disease." Here was 
no little power, and for years prior to the coming 
of the "power" by the Comforter. 

Do we say the power was "power for 
service?" That is a very popular idea, and the 
popular idea is a very mistaken one. If power 
for service, what service? Not preaching. Does 
He say, "and ye shall be preachers unto Me?" 
Preaching is most simple. One may pass for a 
popular and powerful preacher who is woefully 

30 



The Secret 

deficient in a knowledge of the Gospel. There 
is preaching and preaching; preaching the 
Gospel and preaching about it. The latter may 
be done, and done well, with no knowledge what- 
ever of the Gospel itself. One may be a petted 
and patted orator; one may be a polished and 
popular preacher, whose highest ministry is 
fluent and flattering discourse concerning truth. 
Manner and magnetism are not Gospel, however 
taking; discoursing, even truth, may be far from 
delivering a Spirit-suggested message. 

CATCH MEN. 

What must be thought, if not said, of us 
preachers, who are called to catch men, when in 
a term of years we get none? What must be 
thought when in a full year in a great denomina- 
tion less communicants than half of the number 
of its ministers are added to the Church? Less 
than one for every two preachers brought into 
God's fold, to make no mention whatever of its 
millions of membership. Is it not charitable to 
fear we are betrayed into a preaching other than 
heralding the messages of God? 

The American Church never had as many 

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Back to Pentecost 

preachers, and as humanly well equipped ones 
as now; while there may have been a few greater 
names, never were there so many great ones. 
But ministerial results in salvation statistics are 
appalling ! 

No, this "power" is not for preaching in its 
popular meaning. That it is needed unto true 
preaching, and will be felt there is beyond ques- 
tion, but this is not its leading meaning. It is 
rather power unto witnessing — to witness for 
Christ. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me." 

This demands a knowledge of His mission. 
A personal knowing. None can be a witness 
from hearsay. One must know. What was the 
mission of Jesus? Salvation. Nothing less. 
"He shall save his people from their sins," From 
sins. What is salvation from "sins?" It is 
surely a forgiving all the past, the changing of 
one's moral attitude to sinning and an empower- 
ing one against the repetition of sins. Nothing 
less than this can be salvation from sins. 

Suppose the thousands of American pulpits 
should thus witness unto Jesus Christ? Suppose 
the millions of membership in the general 
Church should thus proclaim salvation? What 

32 



The Secret 

a transformation! What a stride toward the 
fullness of the better times ! 

Think of the Protestant ministers and the 
Protestant millions thus testifying ! "Jesus saves 
me from sins. He blots out all my past, gives 
me a new nature, and keeps me from sinning." 
Ring that salvation the land through, and it 
would bring the masses to the cross, and a nation 
would "be born in a day." 

FULLER MINISTRY. 

But Jesus had a fuller ministry than salvation 
from sins, however great that is. He had a min- 
istry of baptism. "He shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost." This spake He of the Spirit, 
which they that believe on Him should receive, 
for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because 
that Jesus was not yet glorified. "Being by 
the right hand of God exalted, and having re- 
ceived of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now 
see and hear." 

In this fuller ministry of Jesus bestowing the 
Holy Ghost upon Christian believers we have a 
farther deliverance from sin than salvation from 

33 



Back to Pentecost 

sins. Here is a salvation from sin — from sin 
itself as a principle. Their hearts, at the Pente- 
cost, said Peter, were purified by faith. And 
this, subjectively, is forever the meaning of 
Pentecost! And this is the "power" of the Holy 
Ghost giving one to thus know Christ. And this 
suggests another feature in the Pentecostal tes- 
timony — an absence of fear. How much we de- 
plore is due to fear. How real to not a few of 
us is the Bible statement, "the fear of man 
bringeth a snare." John says, "fear hath tor- 
ment." How true. We know it has. How 
we all have been tormented by it. 

Perhaps no single expression of carnality has 
larger prominence in destroying the faith of the 
young Christian. One hardly starts out in re- 
ligious exercises till the fearful influence of 
fear begins to assert itself. "If I do this I 
know to be right, what will they say? To be 
just what I feel I want to be and ought to be 
will make me so unlike my mates, what will they 
think? " And alas! how frequently the motives 
of fear prevail and slow-down the soul's move- 
ments to a standstill ! 

To fear means failure. How frequently. 

34 



The Secret 

Into what a pit of sin it plunged Peter; the taunt 
of the damsel without and the threat of fear 
within mastered all better intentions, and he 
denied his Master with an oath. How the masses 
have gone down under a like assault. The 
presence of this wily, wicked fear in one's soul 
perils all. 

EXPLODES IT. 

But it is more than equaled in this power. 
"Ye shall receive power." Here is an explosive 
that can shatter all fear. Fear is a stratum in 
the black mine of carnality, which has such 
prominent place in the Christian soul, but this 
"power" can explode into atoms the entire mine, 
and, like dust, before the strong wind, the breath 
of the infilling Spirit drives away. Power. The 
original is dunamin. The name of the power- 
ful explosive compound "dynamite" comes from 
that term. Ye shall receive dynamite. Faith 
has no severe and prolonged exercise here. Faith 
gives intelligent consent to the Spirit's incom- 
ing, and He attends to the sudden and signal 
business of destroying all the presence of inward 
foes. 

Now is there power for service. How Christ 

35 



Back to Pentecost 

the Head of the Church wants service. How the 
leaders in the Church need it and demand it. 
The cry is "ought." "We ought!" Yes, but 
where's the power? Deny the indwelling Holy 
Ghost, and we have no proper motive, motor, or 
momentum. Machinery without fire. Seeking 
and even demanding ends without means. 
Bricks without straw. Evangelical power for 
service is not electrifying the new man, ignor- 
ing the presence of the old, but electrocuting the 
old man, and thus reinforcing the new. The 
absence of the old man, giving the new man to 
exercise himself unhindered would in itself be an 
inestimable advantage; but this is not the divine 
plan. Amazing, but true ! the Holy Ghost Him- 
self takes up His abode in the cleansed soul. 
And He is the power. He directs; He inspires; 
He empowers. This is genuine power. This is 
true power for service. 

ANYWHERE. 

The Spirit destroys the carnal love of money, 
the love of ease, the love of place, the love of 
self, and inspires unto sacrifice of all for Christ. 
Does the Christ-cause need money and need 

36 



The Secret 

men? Here it finds both. "Ye shall be wit- 
nesses unto Me . . . in Samaria and unto 
the uttermost part of the earth." Pentecost 
means the Spirit of Jesus, and that is missionary. 
The missionary Spirit is the martyr-spirit. "My 
martyrs/' is the exact Greek. Pentecost never 
stops for blows or blocks; for threat or thrall; 
for friend or foe; for fire or famine, but wel- 
comes the will of God anywhere and always. 
After the fire had touched the lips of the old- 
timie seer, and his sin was purged with a super- 
natural naturalness, he answered the divine call : 
"Here am I; send me." He knew not what was 
wanted, nor where, but was ready. 

God understands the how of things; He knows 
proper order; if power is needed it must come, 
in His order, by purity; if service, it must come 
by the destruction of the thing that hinders. 

How Pentecost annihilates partitions. No 
middle wall between Jew and Greek, between 
Israel and Samaria. How impossible a ministry 
to "Samaria" before; how easy and delightsome 
now. Surely the Gospel is for all. For all peo- 
ples the Christ died. The destruction of the self- 
ish and the sinful within the breast of man gives 

37 



Back to Pentecost 

room for the Christ-mind, and that reaches all 
since it died for all. 

FIXED COKDITION. 

This divine coming to the Church is the fixed 
condition to the reaching the world. When He 
is come to you, He will reprove the world. 
This the order. Nothing more fixed and un- 
alterable. As Calvary was, in the divine econ- 
omy, the fixed condition unto the world's re- 
demption; as the return of the Christ to the 
Father was the fixed condition to the Spirit-dis- 
pensation — making the gift of Him possible — 
so is the receiving of the Comforter upon the 
part of the Church, whereby they are fully sanc- 
tified, the fixed condition to the awakening and 
saving the world. 

Jesus is not simply saying that when the Holy 
Ghost comes to a preacher or a layman he will 
preach and pray, live and love as never before, 
which, of course, will be true, but is saying 
rather that His being received by them and the 
Church is God's order in order for the Spirit to 
have His chance to reach the world. Between 

38 



The Secret 

the world's awakening and saving is the sancti- 
ftcation of the Church. 

Does some one say: "Are the generous and 
gracious revivals of the past traceable to a com- 
pliance with this condition?" We answer: 
Yes, practically. While the Church often may 
have known little of this matter by name, there 
has been a complete compliance with all the will 
of God so far as known, which satisfies the 
demand of Christ, and which evidences that a 
fuller light would have been welcomed as well. 
This gave the Holy Spirit the opportunity we 
are seeking to emphasize. 

HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST? 

It comes to be a matter of the utmost impor- 
tance with every Christian whether he has re- 
ceived the Comforter. Not only by reason of 
his own personal Christian life, but his relation 
to the salvation of the world. For one to meet 
this condition so clearly laid down by Christ is 
to open up the Spirit's opportunity to save men 
by that much. Not to do this is, by that much, 
to close the door of salvation to a dying world! 

So the humblest may help or hinder the 
39 



Back to Pentecost 

saving of men. And will. What a privilege. 
What a responsibility. Does one want vindica- 
tion in heralding the second work of grace 
through the gift of the Holy Ghost, whereby 
men are sanctified? Here it is, in its relation 
to the salvation of this world. Who then are the 
truest friends to God's kingdom? Who then are 
seeking to bring the world to the Christ by the 
direct route? Who then are the most interested 
"in sinners?" Those who urge the Christ-condi- 
tion of the Church receiving the Comforter ! 




40 



SIMON MAGU5. 

THE UNCONVERTED IN THE CHURCH AND HOW TO 
DETECT THEM. 

Lesson. 

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, 
and preached Christ unto them. 

And the people with one accord gave heed 
unto those things which Philip spake, hearing 
and seeing the miracles which he did. 

For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, 
came out of many that were possessed with 
them: and many taken with palsies, and that 
were lame, were healed. 

And there was great joy in that city. x 

But there was a certain man, called Simon, 
which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, 
and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out 
that himself was some great one: 

To whom they all gave heed, from the least 
to the greatest, saying, This man is. the great 
power of God. 

41 



Back to Pentecost 

And to him they had regard, because that of 
long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 

But when they believed Philip preaching the 
things concerning the kingdom of God, and the 
name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both 
men and women. 

Then Simon himself believed also; and when 
he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and 
wondered, beholding the miracles and signs 
which were done. 

Now when the apostles which were at Jeru- 
salem heard that Samaria had received the word 
of God, they sent unto them Peter and John : 

Who, when they were come down, prayed for 
them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost : 

(For as yet He was fallen upon none of them : 
only they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus.) 

Then laid they their hands on them, and they 
received the Holy Ghost. 

And when Simon saw that through laying on 
of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, 
he offered them money. 

Saying, Give me also this power, that on 

42 



Simon Magus 

whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the 
Holy Ghost. 

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish 
with thee, because thou hast thought that the 
gift of God may be purchased with money. 

Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: 
for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. 

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and 
pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart 
may be forgiven thee. 

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bit- 
terness, and in the bond of iniquity. 

Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to 
the Lord for me, that none of these things which 
ye have spoken come upon me. — Acts viii: 5-24. 

Simon was a genius. He was a success to a 
very eminent degree. He was celebrated among 
the early Christian writers as Simon Magus, or 
the Magician. He was probably educated in the 
classic schools of Alexandria. The best and 
earliest Church fathers give credit to Simon as 
the father of heretics. Justin Martyr, of the 
second century, himself a Samaritan, says that 
Simon went to the city of Rome in the time of 

43 



Back to Pentecost 

Claudius, and gained such notoriety that he was 
worshipped as a god. 

He was evidently a cunning trickster, an 
adapt fortune-teller, a skilled conjurer, a learned 
astrologer, a practiced clairvoyant, an experi- 
enced mesmerist, a trained ventriloquist, a pro- 
ficient spiritist, a wonder in magical incantations, 
full of animal magnetism and infernal diabolism. 

He claimed superhuman power. "This man 
is the great power of God." No wonder he had 
a following; he would have it anywhere. It 
would have been a wonder if the crowds had not 
given attention to him, for such wonder-works 
as his would claim attention in any city of the 
world. 

But Simon comes in contact with genuine 
power in the ministry of Philip the Evangelist. 
Philip had success in his preaching — spiritual 
success — multitudes were interested, not only in 
his ministry and miracle-working, but many 
were graciously converted to God — "There was 
great joy in that city." 

Philip gets Simon's following. Not because 
the people were fickle or foolish, but because 
they were needy. 

44 



Simon Magus 

We used to think people's mad rush for pleas- 
ure and for the world's new thing was because 
they were getting such satisfaction from them; 
we now see it is because they are ever seeking 
satisfaction, and never finding it. So at Samaria. 
But in what Philip brought them they found 
what no world-power can give — they found rest 
of soul in the Gospel of Christ. 

SIMON JOINED THE CHURCH. 

It is said that "Simon himself believed also;'' 
he was baptized and connected himself with the 
young Church. That he was not a genuine be- 
liever the whole lesson shows clearly. The state- 
ment relative to his believing is as a looker-on 
would report it, without knowing the true in- 
wardness of the case; the whole account war- 
rants our saying that the meaning is he appar- 
ently believed. 

To what an extent he himself was deceived 
concerning his own experience, or to what an 
extent he was playing the hypocrite and deceiv- 
ing others, we have no means of knowing; bur 
we do know that there transpired here with this 
young Church that which undeceived him con- 

45 



Back to Pentecost 

cerning himself, if he had been deceived, and 
completely undeceived the deceived Church con- 
cerning him. 

This suggests our subtitle: "The Uncon- 
verted in the Church and How to Detect Them." 

There are three ways of looking at the 
Church: To be supremely optimistic and regard 
the Church as at her best, or all right, and now 
the thing to do is to add to its communion all 
possible. Again, to be thoroughly pessimistic, 
and regard the Church as at her worst, or all 
wrong, and get out as soon as possible. The 
third, to be seriously an optimistic pessimist, re- 
garding the Church as by no means all bad, 
neither all it should be and may be, but the 
best institution on earth, and the earth's true 
salt, with the constant employment of one's self 
to make the Church better! This we hold is the 
true position. 

NEVER CONVERTED. 

The actual condition of the Church in the 
judgment of an intelligent charity is, masses of 
her members are now unconverted. This is too 
evident to all situated to form an opinion to 

46 



Simon Magus 

admit of denial. Is ot unfrequently it is said of 
this great class: "They never were converted; 
they got into the Church, somehow, but never 
having known God." 

This it is not our purpose to maintain or deny. 
The fact remains that masses in the Protesant 
Christian Church give no evidence of being in 
a converted state, but give evidence to the con- 
trary. 

This is an exceedingly harmful condition of 
things. It is a great harm to the individual and 
to the Church itself. The mission of the Church 
is that of salvation and conservation — saving 
men from sin and conserving the new life of 
righteousness. How impotent — how more than 
useless — are unsaved people in such a divine and 
holy mission ! How can the blind lead the blind ? 
How such in a Church utterly misrepresent her 
mind and her mission! How they stamp her 
very existence as meaningless and hypocritical! 

And oh! how such individuals are endangered. 
Though they may know they never "met with a 
change," and so were never truly converted, 
they are likely to find shelter from awakening 
influences in the fact of belonging to the Church 

47 



Back to Pentecost 

of Jesus Christ, and thus going to ruin from her 
communion! The truth that finds, and awakens, 
and rescues sinners outside, fails to reach them 
because they have false shelter in the fact of 
being in the Church. 

How important to search out, if possible, these 
deluded ones. How needful, in every sense, that 
they be brought face to face with the facts. 
How essential to this end that the lines be 
plainly drawn. 

God has a way. He always has had. The 
plan for making this discovery in this Christian 
dispensation is striking. It is His permanent 
method. All His former ways were temporary. 
See God's method of discovering the wicked in 
the Church by the temporary and occasional 
gift of "discerning of spirts." Peter, in his rela- 
tion to Ananias and Sapphira had this power to 
at once detect the false, and did it to their eternal 
overthrow. This Spirit-gift in Peter was not 
a permanent one. Just a few years later, and 
this same Peter is in the presence of this Simon, 
in this young household of faith in Samaria, and 
Peter does not discern his condition, and not 
until what follows in this interesting and in- 

48 



Simon Magus 

structive history does Peter make the discovery 
of Simon's true character. 

God's permanent method of detecting the un- 
converted in the Church is by heralding the 
fullness of salvation through the Pentecost — by 
the 

GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

Notice its workings in the case before us. It 
revealed Simon to himself. Whatever he had 
or had not seen before concerning himself, it ia 
all clear now. When the Holy Ghost came to 
the Church of which he was a member, the 
fuller light completely searched him out, and 
he cried, "pray ye to the Lord for me." 

This clearly revealed him to Peter. Peter had 
not (discovered Simon's true state; but when the 
Pentecost came and he saw Simon's attitude to 
it, he at once saw he was in the gall of bitterness 
and in the bond of iniquity. Pentecost showed 
Simon's unconverted state! 

And it revealed him to the Church. What a 
peril to have a man like Simon in the Church, 
especially if his true character is not known. 
He was a man that was sure to get into a place 
of influence, if not the place of influence. His 

49 



Back to Pentecost 

education, tact and forwardness were sure to 
admit him to prominence in the Church officiary. 
A leader in Church affairs who was himself 
blind! "What then but the ditch awaited them 
all? 

Here is a terrible secret. How many, many 
Churches "are run" by just such men as Simon! 
What did Jesus say? "They shall both fall into 
the ditch." Why is the Church so generally in 
a most and confessedly deplorable state? They 
are simply in "the ditch." 

The Church at Samaria was evidently de- 
ceived relative to Simon. If Peter was and 
Philip, surely they were. Again we affirm, how 
important that this man, who, though in the 
Church, but was yet in the gall of bitterness., 
should be shown up! And this Pentecost did 
it. Simon's attitude to this wondrous Spirit- 
affusion evidenced his being utterly ignorant of 
all spiritual things. "Give me this power." 
And he tried to buy it with money, of which he 
had plenty. 

What did Simon want of the Holy Ghost? 
He wanted to use Him. He had lost his follow- 
ing, and had no hope of regaining it, save as he 

50 



Simon Magus 

got this new power. He had lost his "rod." As 
Aaron's rod swallowed the rods of the magicians 
of Egypt, so the greater power of the super- 
natural, in the ministry of Peter and John in this 
Samaritan Church, totally eclipsed all the mar- 
vels of this eminent sorcerer. So* he simply 
wanted power. He cared nothing for the Holy 
Ghost — had absolutely no appreciation whatever 
what he was asking, but he wanted power. He 
wanted to use power for his own sinful purposes. 

Not seldom, we fear, is the desire for "power" 
in the Church and among certain Christian 
workers only a form of Simoney. 

How frequently people demand "power for 
service" who would not take the gift of purity 
nor have it at any price! They would like 
God to lend to them His power, that they might 
bring things to pass and have attention and 
mention, who have little or no use for the 
Spirit's fire-purgation. Conquest with them is 
the thing; not character. 

Heralding the Gospel of the Holy Ghost; 
preaching the second work of the Pentecost; 
presenting the believer's privilege of heart purity 
by the fiery baptism, at once makes general and 

51 



Back to Pentecost 

particular discoveries. It immediately show* 
where people are. It clearly determines theii 
spiritual state. 

All Christians want more of what they have. 
In the very nature of things this must be true. 
The grace in them is so precious, and so gracious, 
they can but desire and see the advantage of 
more. Should a professed Christian not desire 
larger measures of grace, would be a strange 
phenomenon indeed. It would simply declare 
the whole claim of Christianity a fraud, or that 
this man is deceived in thinking he has any true 
grace, or it would declare that what he now has 
is so undesirable that more of the same would 
increase his misery. 

TThile, however, all want more, they may not 
consent to pay the price for more. It may mean 
to them the parting with that so dear to the 
carnal mind, or the taking up that so self-deny- 
ing and crossing, that like the rich young ruler, 
they decline. 

Just here all is lost. Xone can retain saving 
grace and consciously refuse to accept proffers 
of larger measures of grace. jSTone can continue 
Christians and knowingly turn from the will of 

52 



Simon Magus 

God. "If a man love Me lie will keep My 
words. " "He that hath My commandments and 
keepeth them he it is that loveth Me." "If ye 
keep My commandments ye shall abide in My 
love." "Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever 
I command you." 

We are not meaning to say that unless one 
sees as we do he is all wrong; that unless he is 
a seeker for the Pentecost when first he hears 
about it; that unless he has the fullest light, he 
hasn't any; but we do mean to say, that when 
the fuller light comes, if he has no appreciation 
of it whatever, or no desire for it, or choice of 
it, it reveals an unconverted and natural state! 

One may be blinded by an unconscious preju- 
dice; may be perverted in thought by perverse 
traditions; may be betrayed into present neglect 
by the cunning of the carnal mind; may be tem- 
porarily deceived by the devil, but, if one is 
in possession of the genuine grace of God, and 
leading a real Christian life, the heart will win. 
The Spirit will apply the faithful use of the 
word, and that soul will ere long seek and find 
the Pentecost. But, if on the other hand, the 
teaching of this wondrous truth and emphasis 

53 



Back to Pentecost 

ing this gracious privilege and crying need of 
the Pentecost finds one indifferent, or awakens 
only criticism and opposition, and this is the 
persistent attitude of the soul, it reveals clearly 
the absence of all saving grace, notwithstanding 
all profession or activity ! 

DIVIDES THE CHUECH. 

It is not unfrequently said that heralding this 
truth — preaching the full salvation of the Pen- 
tecost — "divides the Church. " Let us say a most 
earnest thing just here. Do not misunderstand 
it, or misquote: If the Church can be divided 
by preaching essential truth, it certainly ought 
to be! But no! This preaching and teaching 
do not divide the Church; they simply show the 
division that already exists! 

The prayer-meeting divided the Church long 
ago. The class-meeting and revival services set 
the few earnest and spiritual people by them- 
selves long since. Preaching holiness, or the 
Pentecost, simply shows all these things clearly. 

Pentecost divides the Church then openly — 
makes it to be seen; brings matters to the sur- 

54 



Simon Magus 

face. See our lesson. Did the Pentecost in the 
Church at Samaria put Simon where he was? 
Did it place him in the "gall of bitterness and 
the bond of iniquity?" By no means. It 
simply showed that he was there. It made no 
division; it brought the real division to the sur- 
face. 

Hence it divides the Church helpfully. It 
puts Simon in his true light, and thus protects 
the innocent and unsuspecting flock from the 
power of the wolf. • So it divides hopefully. It 
gives poor Simon some chance to get saved. So 
long as he is blind to himself, or the Church Is 
blind to his condition, there is no hope of its 
being bettered; but when the Pentecost comes, 
and the true facts are revealed, then Peter says : 
"Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and 
pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart 
may be forgiven thee." It made missionary 
ground of him, and offered hope of his salvation. 

Thus Pentecost makes the Church pure! It 
awakens and saves its unsaved members, and 
thus effects its purity, or, finding they have no 
part in this matter, and have nothing in common 
with the spiritual, true Church, they withdraw 

55 



Back to Pentecost 

and go to their "own place/' and thus is the 

purity of the Church effected. 

REVIVAL OF SUBTRACTION NEEDED. 

Just here is presented to the average mind a 
great embarrassment or temptation. "We are 
naturally unwilling to lose numbers. But our 
best interests in the Church demand a loss of 
some of our Simons — some of our "big men." 
If they cannot be saved, which should be our 
first and earnest endeavor, then let them go. The 
injury in their remaining unsaved in the Church 
is too mutual and too marked to have them long 
continued. "When the Pentecost comes to a 
Church, and its remaining is desired and cher- 
ished, these unsaved members will soon come to 
her altars as seekers of genuine grace or they will 
go from her altars. They will not long remain. 
There is too much light for their impaired vision. 
Xo need to urge their going; they'll go. Let 
them ! 

But just here we say again comes a test. A 
distinguished writer and preacher says: "More 
than half the strength of our preachers is ex- 
hausted in neutralizing the damaging influence 

56 



Simon Magus 

of members who ought long ago to have been 
excommunicated. Why this neglect of dis- 
cipline? Because it is disagreeable work, and 
would lessen the statistical report. "We are 
living in an age when a revival of subtraction 
would be more beneficial to the Church than a 
revival of addition, for which it would be an ex- 
cellent preparation." 

Discipline is delicate work, not to say danger- 
ous. God has a simpler and surer way of discon- 
tinuing the unspiritual. It is by the Pentecost. 
To turn to an utterance by John the Baptist in 
Matthew is to find a striking passage. He says: 
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and 
with fire. Whose fan is in His hand and He will 
thoroughly purge His floor, and gather Hie 
wheat into the garner." What is the "floor" 
but His visible Church? This is to be purged, 
or made clean. But how? By the baptism with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire. This separates the 
wheat from the chaff and gets the chaff out of 
the floor! So Pentecost purifies. How divine, 
how spiritual and yet how simple this method 
of ridding the Church of her unspiritual and un- 
savory elements. 

57 



Back to Pentecost 

In a certain preachers' meeting time was de- 
voted the first Monday of each month to reports 
from the pastors concerning their work. One 
brother said the last month had been the best in 
a long time. The president of the meeting said : 
"That is excellent; how many additions have you 
had, brother?" The brother replied: "Not any, 
sir; but we have gotten rid of twenty-six." 

This is not playful. This is downright sober- 
ness. This is a divine secret. This subtraction 
would soon mean addition. Let it come in God's 
order. That is by Pentecost. 



58 



THE SECOND CHANGE. 

There was a Pentecost. There was a time 
when the Holy Ghost came upon certain people. 
This is simply an historic fact. Those upon 
whom the Spirit came were "disciples." The 
coming of the Spirit was not upon the general 
crowd in Jerusalem, but upon certain ones styled 
disciples, as against all others. We are not now 
saying these persons were anything other than 
merely nominal disciples — disciples in name' — 
those who had come into the school of Christ 
and were his pupils; they certainly were this, not 
to say anything more. 

The Pentecost, with these, formed a great 
crisis. It was a great epoch in this young 
Church, and effected a marvelous change. 
From this hour their works and their words were 
such as never before had been done or heard. 
From this time their miracle-power was such as 
they never had before known. The miracles as 
to their number and their nature, after the 
Pentecost, were far ahead of any with them in 

59 



Back to Pentecost 

their past. And the change was as marked as 
to their spiritual force. Their revivalistic power 
was strikingly enhanced. From the hour of the 
Pentecost revivals attended their labors never 
before witnessed by them or by others. 

ISTot only so, this change was subjective. It 
was a great moral crisis as well. It not only 
effected a change without them, it effected a 
change within them; it had to do not only with 
their power , but it had to do with their persons; 
it made a change truly as to their conquest, it 
also made a change as to their character. Peter 
forever settles that Pentecost effected a moral 
change when he says concerning this same event, 
"purifying their hearts by faith." 

FIRST CHANGE? 

What was this Pentecost-crisis? What was 
this moral change? We do not now ask what 
was it as to its nature so much, as what was it as 
to its number? Was this their first change, or 
had they had one before? 

If we were to bring this question to the atten- 
tion of the general Church, we should get a very 
uniform answer. The Church, very generally, 

60 



The Second Change 

would say: "It was not their first change; they 
had had one before." 

Let us bring here the statements of two very 
distinguished men who represent not the same 
doctrinal wing of the Church. Dr. Buckley, of 
the New York Christian Advocate, had the fol- 
lowing question sent him: "Were the apostles 
converted before the day of Pentecost? If not, 
why is it they were not, after following the Lord 
while on earth so long?" His answer was: 
"There is no reason to believe that the apostles 
were not converted in the ordinary sense before 
that time. Probably several of them were be- 
fore they were ever called as apostles, perhaps 
all of them, but they were ignorant of the special 
gifts introduced under this dispensation. The 
devout Jews who died before the coming of 
Christ, or who never heard of Him while He 
was upon the earth, were converted as genuinely 
as John Wesley. The descent of the Holy 
Ghost, the peculiar manifestation of the Holy 
Comforter, did not occur according to the Scrip- 
tures until Christ was glorified." 

The other to whom we refer is the eminent 
missionary arid author, Andrew Murray. He 

61 



Back to Pentecost 

says : "To the disciples the baptism of the Spirit 
was very distinctly not His first bestowal for 
regeneration." 

The position of both these leaders in Zion is 
a representative one, probably just what the 
Church generally would be upon this question; 
that Pentecost was 

NOT THE FIRST CHANGE. 

But the Church may be wrong. The fact that 
great and good men believe a thing, or that it 
is in the creeds of the Church never can settle 
it. "We forget often to remember this. Yet it 
is true. While all this is just what we desire 
these men to say, and the Church to believe, it 
still remains true that the question must not be 
left there. 

It must be taken to a higher court for final 
decision. That court is God's Word. Here this 
question as to the number of this moral change 
must be settled. Whether great men and a 
greater Church are right in their opinion con- 
cerning the apostles before the Pentecost and 
after, must be determined by the Word of God. 

Turning to the Scriptures we learn that prior 
to the Pentecost these apostles were called from 

62 



The Second Change 

secular to sacred pursuits. They were called 
from their fishing and their farming to be di- 
rectly associated with Jesus Christ, which re- 
lation they held for years. 

We find farther that they were apostled; thej 
were sent forth by Him for spiritual and divine 
service. 

And, furthermore, they served unto genuine 
purpose. Mark tells us that "they went out and 
preached that men should repent, And they 
cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many 
that were sick and healed them." 

Certainly we shall not declare that Jesus could 
not have called unregenerate men and associated 
them with Himself for three years and more; 
we shall not say He could not have sent, as His 
apostles, unconverted men to get others con- 
verted; we have no disposition to assert that He 
could not have caused these impenitent men to 
have wrought miracles. He could have done all 
this. 

"We remember that God caused that donkey 
upon which Baalim rode to talk, and talk intel- 
ligibly, if not intelligently. If God could make 
a long-eared animal talk, He could a short-eared. 

63 



Back to Pentecost 

It is not a question with us then as to what 
God could do, as to what He did do. This much 
is certain. If Christ, the Head of the Church, 
called and commissioned unregenerate men to 
preach His Gospel and get others saved, the peo- 
ple have no reason to find fault if their next 
minister makes no claim whatever to ever 
having been converted! For Christ set the 
example in sending unconverted men to the 
churches. 

REGENERATED MEN. 

The disciples were genuinely converted, re- 
generated men prior to the Pentecost. See their 
commission. Christ said to them: "I send you 
forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." What 
are His "Sheep?" Are they impenitent, God- 
less, men? "But when," He says, "they deliver 
you up take no thought how or what ye shall 
speak; for it shall be given you in that same 
hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that 
speak, but the Spirit of your Father which 
speaketh in you." Mark! He says the Spirit 
of your Father. Not only did they then have 
the highest type of inspiration known in the 
ISTew Testament — the Spirit of God directly tell- 

64 



The Second Change 

ing them what to say — but this Spirit was the 
Spirit of their Father. This passage alone for- 
ever settles their genuine discipleship — that they 
were the children of God. 

Jesus says to them : "I am the vine, ye are the 
branches." In this figure we have unity and 
vitality. The branch and the vine are one; 
hence the life of the vine flows into the branch. 
He further says: "If the world bate you, ye 
know it hated Me before it hated you. If ye 
were of the world, the world would love his 
own; because ye are not of the world, but I have 
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 
hateth you." See how these statements clearly 
locate them as to their relation to Christ. Noi 
of the world. So unworldly as to draw the hatred 
of the world. The world hates them for the 
same reason it hates Him — because they did not 
longer belong to it. 

He farther says: "I pray for them; I pray 
not for the world, but for them which thou hast 
given Me; for they are Thine." "The world" 
and these were surely two different classes here, 
or language means nothing. And two different 
moral classes; so that the prayer for their sanc- 

65 



Back to Pentecost 

tification had no adaptation to the world-class. 
And farther He says: "I have given them Thy 
Word; and the world hath hated them, because 
they are not of the world, even as I am not of 
the world." Not of the world even as He is not ! 

To divide mankind into two classes — those 
who belong to God and those who do not, where 
should Jesus be put? In which class? Mark: 
Just where we would put Him, He puts them ! 

John uses an expression which almost in so 
many words declares those disciples to have been 
born of God before the Pentecost. He says: 
"He came unto His own, and His own received 
Him not, but as many as received Him, to them 
gave He power to become the sons of God, even 
to them that believe on His name; which were 
born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God." All re- 
ceiving Christ are born of God! Did these dis- 
ciples receive Him or reject Him? When John 
the Baptist stood and pointed out the "Lamb of 
God" to his own disciples, saying, "He must in- 
crease, but I decrease" (expecting to lose his fol- 
lowing), did they say: "We do not care for Him; 
we prefer you." No. They followed Jesus 

66 



The Second Change 

and sought out their friends also, saying: "We 
have found Him, of whom Moses in the law and 
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the 
son of Joseph." 

They then u received Him." John says as 
many as received Him are born of God ! These 
passages are sufficient surely to clearly show that 
these disciples were regenerated before the Pen- 
tecost, 

NOT RESTORATION. 

Then their first change was not the Pentecost. 
It was a change; but not the first. They had 
had one before. Neither was Pentecost a repeti- 
tion of the first. Some one says : "Oh, certainly ; 
they had had a change before Pentecost — were 
genuinely converted before then — but they had 
lapsed, they had backslidden; so when the Pen- 
tecost came, though it was a genuine moral 
change, and subsequent to their first one, it was 
no second one in the sense of an addition to the 
first. It was simply restoration." 

Certain words Jesus uttered fully and finally 
settle Pentecost to have been a second change 
and not a repetition of a former one. He says: 
"If ye love Me keep my commandments, and I 

67 



Back to Pentecost 

will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
another Comforter, that He may abide with you 
forever; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, 
neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for 
He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." 
(John xiv: 15-17.) 

Is one who loves Christ and keeps His com- 
mandments a genuine Christian? Of that there 
can be no question. Certainly such an one is a 
genuine Christian! "Would we had no other 
kind of people in our churches! All pastors 
would gladly welcome such. 

Notice: For such — those who love Him and 
keep His commandments — He was going to 
pray; and his prayer was that they might have 
another Comforter. He states that this Com- 
forter is the Spirit of Truth. He then declares 
that the world (the unconverted) cannot receive 
Him, because they are utterly unacquainted 
with spiritual things, or see and know not the 
Spirit. But these disciples may have this other 
Comforter — the Spirit of Truth — since they 
know Him; He dwelleth with them, and shall be 
in them. 

68 



The Second Change 

That the coming of this Spirit of Truth is 
nothing other than the Pentecost is too clear to 
need even an affirmation. This was the privilege 
only for those for whom Christ was to pray and 
this prayer was only for disciples; not for the 
world. Pentecost then ivas conditioned upon 
one being already a Christian; it was not a 
restoration to a Christian state! 

Pentecost was "the promise of the Father." 
Jesus had distinctly said: "I send the promise of 
My Father upon you." For this they were com- 
manded to "tarry." They did and received this 
fulfillment of the promise. What was the 
promise of the Father? "And it shall come to 
pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit 
upon all flesh." Was this it? Peter said at the 
Pentecost: "This is that which was spoken by 
the prophet Joel." 

Pentecost was the promised "power." Ye 
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." It was the power in the 
Person., God the Holy Ghost, and none other 
came upon them, and filled them, and then they 
had the promised power. 



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Back to Pentecost 

THE FIEE. 

Pentecost was the baptism with fire. "He," 
said John the Baptist, '"shall baptize you -with 
the Holy Ghost and fire." 

Some find in this passage a proof-text for a 
"third blessing/' 7 they think. And fire they de- 
clare means something more than the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost. The grammar cannot be 
so pressed into service here. While "and" may 
mean something in addition, it doest not neces- 
sarily mean that. The grammar says it may be 
used "in the body of a sentence, when a speaker 
means to dwell on particulars, in order that the 
hearer may duly appreciate what he says." This 
seems to be the exact use of this conjunction in 
the passage before us. "And fire" does not seem 
to mean that there is a baptism of fire after the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost, but that the man- 
ifestation of the Spirit's coming was in fire. 

Fire, in the Scriptures, is frequently a symbol 
of the Dvine person and power. In the experi- 
ence of Moses we have this record: "And the 
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame 

of fire out of the midst of the bush 

And Moses said. I will now turn aside, and see 

70 



The Second Change 

this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And 
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, 
God called unto him out of the midst of the 
bush." God appeared to Moses in a flame of 
fire. Fire, here is a symbol of the Divine 
presence. 

In Isaiah the Spirit of God is called "the Spirit 
of burning." And by this Spirit of burning 
God is said to have purged (or cleansed) the 
blood of Jerusalem from Zion. In Hebrews 
God is called "a consuming fire." 

The idea of fire connected with the Pentecost 
seems to be this idea of consuming something. 
There is no such thing as fire apart from some- 
thing a-fire. None ever saw or heard of fire 
except in this sense, if, indeed, it is conceivable. 
Fire must be some substance on fire. There can 
be no fire in an engine save as coal, or wood, or 
something else is a-fire. The fine of hell (if it 
were material) is simply something there on fire. 
The Spirit of God comes into the soul as a fire, 
and He operates like fire, and the leading idea 
in the fire is destruction. 

Hence, Pentecost was giving to the disciples a 
needed purification — their hearts were purified 

71 



Back to Pentecost 

by faith. Here was the assured cleansing. 
Jesus had said: "Every branch that beareth 
fruit, He purgeth (cleanseth) it, that it may 
bring forth more fruit" This surely applied 
to these disciples; and at the Pentecost they were 
cleansed. 

FAITH EPOCH. 

Pentecost was a definite and sudden faith 
epoch. It was not a long-drawn-out affair. 
Luke says: "Suddenly." And it was not an 
accident. It was prepared for. Jesus had said 
"tarry until/' and they did. They believed and 
obeyed. And the Spirit came. 

The condition and result are the same now 
and ever. The promise is as general as is the 
need in human hearts. All Christians need the 
Holy Ghost, and all may have their definite 
Pentecost. "The promise is to you, and to your 
children, and to all that are afar off." 

The first crisis — the first change of regenera- 
tion is real; so is this second crisis — this heart- 
cleansing through the Pentecost. Both are 
promised in the Word of God. One may be 
doubted as well as the other. Both are matters 
of experience, and are confessed over and over. 

72 



The Second Change 

Why then may not infidels doubt the fact of re- 
generation if Christians may the fact of sanc- 
tification? One is as clearly taught in God's 
Word as the other, and no more so, and as 
clearly confesssed by the people of God. With 
what little reason then, or consistency, may we 
Christians deplore the unbelief of one who re- 
jects all revelation and Christian testimony 
while ive reject the second work of the Pen- 
tecost? 

Twenty years and more ago two young 
students were rooming together attending an 
Ohio college. One was a Christian, and looking 
toward the ministry, and the other a skeptic, 
looking toward the law. The Christian young 
man was faithful to his room-mate in seeking to 
bring him to Christ. One of his repeated argu- 
ments, and strongest ones, was the fact that 
Christianity was proven by experience' — it was 
a matter of personal knowledge. 

He seemed to advance slowly, if at all, toward 
making the skeptic a Christian. The Christian 
was unacquainted with the experience of entire 
sanctification through the Pentecost. One day 
they were visited by a schoolmate, who was 

73 



Back to Pentecost 

clearly in the grace of sanctification, and who 
was earnest in his efforts to bring other Chris- 
tians into the same precious faith. Our Christian 
brother and his skeptical friend listened with 
interest to their caller's presentation of the doc- 
trine and experience of holiness. But the 
Christian brother hedged and hesitated, and was 
quite inclined to turn from the whole subject, 
when his skeptical roommate said: "Charlie, is 
it not to be tested by experience? Is not this a 
matter of knoivledge?" 

He spoke better than he knew. It cured the 
hesitation of his roommate, who at once saw his 
inconsistent plight. If what he wished his 
friend to accept — the first work of regeneration 
— was, as he had argued, to be tested by -experi- 
ence, and he was unwilling to prove it, what 
about his own unwillingness to prove this matter 
of sanctification the same way ! 

In one of our New England pastorates at one 
time one of our honored and spiritual bishops 
spent a Sunday with our people. During his 
sermon he gave, in urging the matter of the 
Pentecost, the following: "Some years since in 
a Vermont town there was being enjoyed a gra- 

74 



The Second Change 

cions revival of religion. A lady of character 
and influence was devoting herself quite earn- 
estly to personal work among the unsaved. 
While out in this blessed service one day she 
though of a young lawyer in the town, of whom 
she knew something, though had never met him. 
Her heiart moved her to try and see him; 
and with not little hesitation she went to his 
office door and rapped. A voice said "Come 
in," and opening the door she saw a young man 
sitting in the center of the room by his desk. 
She hastily walked to his side, and declining a 
proffered seat, made known her errand. He 
quickly, though with intended courtesy, said, 
"Madam, are you not a Methodist?" And she 
replied, "Yes, sir." He said (so lawyer-like), 
"Do not you Methodists believe in sanctifica- 
tion?" She said, "Why — yes." "Excuse me, 
madam, are you sanctified?" And she em- 
barrassingly said, "No," With a mixture of 
indignation and conviction, and enough of both 
to betray him now into discourtesy, he ex- 
claimed, "Well, madam, I can't talk longer with 
you, when you get what you ought to have you 
may come and exhort me." And he bowed her 
out. 75 



Back to Pentecost 

She was a good and sensible woman, and this 
awful thrust was felt. She went down the stairs 
from the lawyer's office deeply humiliated and 
convicted. She wisely determined to see no 
more persons about their souls until she had at- 
tended to her own case. She hastened home, 
and threw herself before God, confessing the 
situation, and prayed for immediate sanctifica- 
tion. Of course God immediately sanctified her. 
In a little, recovering from her overjoy, she 
started for the lawyer's office. She did not 
rap this time, but opened the door rather 
hurriedly, and found the young man buried so 
dee]) in evident meditation as not to notice her 
entrance. She hastened to his side, and said, 
"Esquire," and he, looking up into a beaming 
face with a sudden and genuine interest, caught 
every word, "I've got it." The young man, 
evidently under deep conviction all the time, 
completely broke up and gave his heart to God. 
This is the divine order. This is just as Christ 
put it. He say< in His last prayer that the be- 
lieving upon the part of the world comes after 
the sanctification of the Church. And it comes 
then. 

76 



THE TWO BAPTISMS. 

John the Baptist mentions two baptisms — 
with water and with the Holy Ghost. These are 
by two administrators — men and Jesus Christ. 
"I indeed have baptized you with water; but He 
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." 

There was one class of candidates — people. 
These were of two grades; those who had re- 
ceived John's baptism and those who had, in ad- 
dition, received Christ's. 

John intimately relates his baptism with that 
Christ administers. The one conditions the 
other. Only those who have the experience, for 
which water baptism stands, are candidates for 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 



Who and what was John? What was his 
baptism in its meaning? The old-time prophet 
declared John's ministry. "The voice of him that 
crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of 

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Back to Pentecost 

the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway 
for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, 

and every mountain and hill shall be made low: 
and the crooked shall be made straight and the 
rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord 
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
together: for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken." 

Eastern monarchs sent heralds before them, 
when about to make a journey, to prepare a suit- 
able and comfortable highway; to clear awav 
obstacles, make bridges over streams and valleys 
and level hills. This material figure is a strong 
description of the radical spiritual work accom- 
plished by John's ministry. He prepared the 
way of the Lord. John was no mere herald; ft 
mere announcer; he was a genuine preparer. 
As the work of the Christ was to be spiritual, 
only a spiritual work was its preparation. Of 
this the Scriptures are clear. 

What was John's work of preparation? Sal- 
vation. A genuine heart-experience of salvation 
from sin. Mark says: "John did baptize in the 
wilderness, and preach the baptism of repent- 
ance for the remission of sins." Remission, or 

7fi 



The Two Baptisms 

pardon of sins. This John's preaching secured. 
What experience is more real than this? 

Luke says: "And thou child shalt be called 
the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go 
before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; 
to give knowledge of salvation unto His people 
by the remission of their sins, through the tender 
mercy of our God; ... to guide our feet 
into the way of peace." 

Note this instructive and conclusive utter- 
ance: (a) John prepared the Lord's ways, (b) 
This preparation was giving the people a knowl- 
edge of salvation, (c) This salvation was the re- 
mission of sins, (d) Thus were they guided into 
the way of peace, (e) And all by the tender 
mercy of God. 

Surely no stronger language could be used to 
show the genuineness of the spiritual ministry 
of John the Baptist. 

What language could be used to show one 
understood the plan of salvation, than John the 
Baptist uses in John iii: 3G, when he says: "He 
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; 
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." 

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Back to Pentecost 

Can one read such as tins and think John simply 
did a reformatory work, like the man "turning 
over a new leaf?" 

No, John cast up a "highway." Isaiah 
farther said: "And an highway shall be there, 
and a way, and it shall be called the way of 
holiness." An highway and a way, and "it 
shall be called the way of holiness." What 
called the way of holiness? The "way;" not the 
highway! A way in a highway! John cast up 
the highway in bringing people to remission of 
sins, and Jesus comes with a fuller salvation — 
the way of holiness. 

Then John's baptism was a genuine Christian 
experience — a real regeneration — a knowledge 
of salvation, which prepared and always pre- 
cedes 



By Christ's baptism we do not mean His water 
baptism in the Jordan, but that baptism He ad- 
ministers — the baptism with the Holy Ghost. 
This is His baptism! "What is it? 

It is not extraordinary manifestations and 
ministries. If minds may be disabused of this 

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The Two Baptisms 

error, not a, little advance will have been made 
toward the truth. The chief est thing in God's 
realm is not the spectacular — that outward and 
showy; but the spiritual. The highest place is 
the lowest. To get up in God's kingdom is to 
go down. Some of the disciples asked for the 
highest place. Jesus said to them: "Whosoever 
will be great among you, shall be your minister 
(one who ministers — a servant), and whosoever 
of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of 
all. For even the Son of man came not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give 
his life a ransom for many." 

What a revelation is this! And what a revo- 
lution an appreciation and an application of this 
Christly teaching would effect! How it would 
fundamentally change the whole order of things ! 
Reigning less than serving ! 

This being true, men are going to see its truth. 
It is simply a question of when. And how this 
seeing will cause a revulsion of the entire being; 
how this fact will even precipitate one into a 
downright hatred of the past which has so de- 
ceived and destroyed. Oh, how poor will posi- 
tion seem! 

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Back to Pentecost 

One of our American citizens was a member 
of the United States Senate. While holding 
this responsible and generally enviable position, 
he was genuinely converted to God, under the 
ministry of a distinguished Methodist preacher, 
who was at that time chaplain of the Senate. 

This Senator resigned his seat and returned to 
his home, with the avowed purpose to give up 
all politics and his law profession and enter the 
Methodist ministry. 

His political friends hearing of it and fearing 
the effect upon their party which the withdrawal 
of this popular and promising man would have, 
they sought to dissuade him from this course. 
But for quite a while he refused their sugges- 
tions, evidently determined to remain out of 
politics. He declined to be the Governor of his 
State; refused to re-enter the Senate; rejected 
a proffered seat in Polk's cabinet, and the office 
of Attorney-General, but alas! yielded to the 
proffer of the highest office in the gift of the 
nation, and was elected to the Presidency in 
18 — . After his term expired, he expired, as 
to all publicity and popularity, lived for a few 
years in a manner unbecoming the commonest 



The Two Baptisms 

man, and died, it is to be feared, in great 
darkness. 

Oh, what a revelation this teaching of the 
Christ has brought to this poor soul ! And what 
it will bring to so many! The chief est place 
not the positions of the world ! 

"John the Baptist never wrote a book, never 
had any public office, never founded any 
Church. He was not a rich man, commanded 
no armies, made no conquests. He healed no 
one, and wrought no miracles. He was not even 
a cultured man; for he had no especial educa- 
tion. No one addressed him by any title, nor 
was he descended from any illustrious family. 
In fact, he had absolutely nothing of wordly 
value to distinguish him above his fellow-men. 
Yet in the face of all this, Jesus the Christ 
exalts him above all the great men who were 
born before him." 

How striking that Jesus never mentioned any 
of the world's great men with praise. There 
were great men, and some of the world's greatest 
before His time, and some very near His time — 
just before Him. The world has seen no greater 
names among poets, scholars, soldiers, orators, 

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Back to Pentecost 

statesmen and multi-millionaires than Horace, 
Solon, Alexander, Demosthenes, Caesar and 
Croesus. 

Does it seem strange? Yet He never men- 
tioned the names of the world's great, which are 
household names, their greatness was so world- 
renowned. What does this suggest? That 
greatness with men is littleness with God; that 
what is sometimes accorded the homage of 
mankind is not worthy the mentioning by God. 

CHARACTER NOT CONQUEST. 

With God supreme achievement is personal 
and not relative. God cares more for one's 
character than for one's conquest! This would 
seem to be a new truth to not a few inside the 
Church, as well as to most all outside. Charac- 
ter seems to be seldom sought; but conquest 
always. This is the human order. Achievement 
first. The "seventy" had achievement. They 
returned "with joy" to mention it. And they 
had genuine success — real conquest — for devils 
were subject unto them through the name of 
Jesus. They expected the Master to be gratified 

84 



The Two Baptisms 

as they recounted their successes: "Lord, even 
the devils are subject unto us through thy 
name." He was gratified. He must have been. 
But not at their view of things. They got 
things out of their proper order. "What was the 
proper order ? Hear Him : "I give you power; 
I give you great power." Ye shall "tread on 
serpents and scorpions," and ye have power 
"over all the power of the enemy; and nothing 
shall by any means hurt you." What could be 
a greater occasion of joy than to have all the 
power of the enemy tinder one's feet? Some- 
thing. Something can bei of greater value to 
one. We may be illy prepared for such a state- 
ment; but it is true, for He says farther to these: 
"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not that the 
spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice 
because your names are written in heaven." 

There is then something of greater moment 
than outward exploit, and it is inner experience. 
Character is above all. This is the supreme 
ground of rejoicing. In the centuries long 
gone Solomon had said: "He that is slow to 
anger is better than the mighty; and he that 
ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." 

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Back to Pentecost 

To be good, better than to be great! To be 
inwardly and personally pious, of greater mo- 
ment than to be outwardly and personally power- 
ful ! To keep tlie citadel of the soul, of greater 
importance than to take the citadel of a city! 

How difficult is this lesson. How seldom 
learned. How few seem to have much of any 
appreciation of this truth. How seldom do we 
find people emphasizing being above doing; 
but how often taking the "city" takes all prec- 
edence of ruling one's spirit, and seeking to be 
"mighty/' above seeking to be rid of "anger." 

This being true, and God having a special 
baptism for his people, by which they are given 
power, what would be the primary object of 
this? Certainly subjective; power to be good, 
rather than great; power to effect character 
above effecting conquest. 

This, we should insist, is fully in harmony 
with the desires and demands of good souls. 
Good people and those determined to be good, 
would be poorly satisfied with personal power, 
at the expense of personal purity. Were this 
not true it would evidence a very selfish and sin- 
ful motive dominating the choice ami character, 



The Two Baptisms 

NOTORIETY. 

Efficiency is seldom disassociated from noto- 
riety. With most people genuine spiritual 
power means general prominence: real success 
is supposed to be outward and showy. But noth- 
ing could be farther from the truth. God's gifts 
and grace do not necessarily, or generally, change 
one's calling — do not alter their life-work, as to 
its kind. Is a man a farmer, or a mechanic, or 
a merchant? Is a woman a teacher, or a mill- 
operative, or a housewife? The baptism of the 
Holy Ghost, or the gift of power, does not neces- 
sarily turn them to preaching, or make them 
foreign missionaries, or even send them to the 
slums as rescue workers. What does it do? It 
enables them to serve God in their corner and 
calling, and glorify Him by walking there in 
holiness and righteousness. 

That preaching is easier than practice has 
become a proverb. Lip-service is often easier 
than life-service. Not that practice is too diffi- 
cult to be realized, or life-service too severe to be 
rendered, but that the other may be done with a 
less demand upon grace. 

Then it follows that what sometimes gets the 
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Back to Pentecost 

attention of community, and passes for great 
Christian achievement — taking the city — may 
be the result of native gift, acquired tact, vvide 
experience, rather than great grace. Not a lit- 
tle of noticed labor has less of the divine element 
than much that is unnoticed. Hence a wife and 
mother in limited circumstances, seeking to train 
her children in the fear of God, and so manage 
by self-denial and economy to enable her hus- 
band and herself make the "limited means do," 
and does all in the quiet, uncomplaining and 
cheerful spirit of holiness, may evidence larger 
grace and more genuine success in God's eye, 
than some flaming preacher who attracts crowds 
— and whose praises are on ad lips. 

That a professed Christian seeks power, does 
not evidence great light or grace. Power may 
be wrongly spelled. P-r-o-m-i-n-e-n-c-e would 
spell it better. \Not a few want power for 
prominence! The lower the grace the stronger 
may be the demand for power. Simon wanted 
power, and wanted it enough to part with values 
for it; but what was his motive? Be careful of 
motives in seeking power! "Everybody wants 
power; few want God," says Daniel Steele. 



The Two Baptisms 

PHENOMENA. 

How the sights and sounds that attended the 
historic Pentecost, get to the front in people's 
thinking; how they seem to become essential. 
"What effect it has upon seekers of the Pentecost. 
How some cannot be satisfied without them, and 
others fear to seek for fear of them. 

A prominent and wealthy lady was at our 
altar, during one of our pastorates as a seeker of 
holiness. Near her was a brother in black, who 
was a common day-laborer. This lady could 
not seem to find, to her satisfaction, the grace she 
was seeking. All of a sudden this colored 
brother jumped to his feet and shouted, "Fse 
got it." The service was hardly over when this 
cultured lady hurried to us and said: "What 
that colored man got is just what I want." She 
demanded a striking manifestation. It was 
sometime before she could be made to see that 
outward phenomena was no essential part of 
Pentecost. 

Others hesitate to seek for fear of the mani- 
festations. They do not want to jump and clap 
their hands and appear unusual. What one 
deemed desirable the other regards undesirable, 

89 



Back to Pentecost 

but both think essential — that without outward 
manifestation there can be no genuine Pentecost. 

Phenomena should never be emphasized. The 
attitude of a seeker should be, blessed Spirit 
come! Come now and come as Thou choosest. 
If quietly, come; if by demonstration, come; but 
come! 

If the phenomena — the outward manifesta- 
tion — were essential to a genuine Pentecost it 
would always be present. In New Testament in- 
stances it was not always. Who shall say that 
the coming of the Spirit upon the disciples in 
Samaria was not as genuine as his coming at the 
historic Pentecost? Cornelius and his military 
household received a real Pentecost, though 
much of the first phenomena was absent. 

The power to speak is permanent. The phys- 
cal miracles of the many tongues, was but a type 
of the new tongue given to all peoples, who have 
their personal Pentecost. "The wonderful 
works of God" wrought in the human soul, the 
Holy Ghost gives power to declare. The bap- 
tism Christ administers, gives a new knowledge 
of salvation and a fire^-tipped tongue to declare it, 



THE TWO BAPTISMS, 
n. 

POWER FOR SERVICE. 

Christ's baptism is not mere "power for 
service." That it does equip, and as nothing 
else does, for genuine Christian service is most 
certain, but it is not merely nor primarily this. 
What a huge error is the current idea, that the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost is solely power for 
service! But in this instruction and insistence 
there is a very important recognition and con- 
fession, viz., that there is a special empowering 
needed subsequent to regeneration, that regener- 
ation does not give, and this is the Pentecost. 

There are two classes of Christian teachers 
who insist upon Pentecost being a definite and 
sudden epoch after regeneration — a genuine 
"second blessing;" but they differ widely as. to 
the meaning of Pentecost. Here before us are 
two books from these teachers, one of which 
Jxas the title, "Baptism with th^ Holy Spirit," 



Back to Pentecost 

The author is Prof. K. S. Torrey, the head of 
the Moody Institute, of Chicago. 

As the title would suggest, this book empha- 
sizes the Pentecost, and in some respects is a book 
of value; but its position as to the meaning of the 
Pentecost is exceedingly faulty. So the book 
may more easily mislead by having so good i 
title. 

Mr. Torrey says: " 'The baptism with the Holy 
Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit separate 
and distinct from His regenerating work? To 
be regenerated by the Holy Spirit is one thing; 
to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is something 
different, something further. This is evident 
from Acts i: 5. There Jesus said : 'Ye shall be 
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
hence? They were not then as yet 'baptized 
with the Holy Ghost. ? But they were already 
regenerated. Jesus himself had already pro- 
nounced them so. . . . The apostles, ex- 
cepting Judas Iscariot, were then already re- 
generate men, but they were not yet "baptized 
with the Holy Ghost." 

"From this it is evident that regeneration is 
one thing, and that the baptism with the Holy 

92 



The Two Baptisms 

Spirit is something different, somthing further. 
One can be regenerated and still not yet be bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost. ... In other 
words, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is some- 
thing distinct from and beyond His regenerating 
work. !Not every regenerate man has the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, though, as we shall 
see later, every regenerate man may have this 
baptism. If a man has experienced the regener- 
ating work of the Holy Spirit he is a saved man, 
but he is not fitted for service until in addition 
to this he has received the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit." 

. . . "The baptism with the Holy Spirit is 
not for the purpose of cleansing from sin, but 
for the purpose of empowering for service. 
There is a line of teaching, put forward by a 
very earnest but mistaken body of people, that 
has brought the whole doctrine of the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit into disrepute. It runs 
this way. First proposition: There is a further 
experience (or second blessing) after regenera- 
tion; namely, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 
This proposition is true, and can be easily proven 
from the Bible. Second proposition: This bap- 

93 



Back to Pentecost 

tism with, the Holy Spirit can be instantaneously 
received. This proposition is also true, and can 
be easily proven from the Bible. Third propo- 
sition : This baptism with the Holy Spirit is the 
eradication of the sinful nature. This proposi- 
tion is untrue. Not a line of Scripture can be 
adduced to show that the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit is the eradication of the sinful nature. 
The conclusion drawn from these three proposi- 
tions, two true and one false, is necessarily false. 
The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not for the 
purpose of cleansing from sin, but for the pur- 
pose of empowering for service. It is indeed 
the work of the Holy Spirit to cleanse from sin. 
Further than this there is a work of the Holy 
Spirit where the believer is strengthened with, 
might in the inner man; that Christ may dwell 
in his heart by faith; that he might be filled 
unto all the fullness of God. (Eph. iii: 16-19, 

R. v.y* 

"There is a work of the Holy Spirit of such a 
character that the believer is made free from the 
law of sin and death (Romans viii: 2), and 
though the Spirit does mortify (put to death the 
deeds of the body) (Romans viii: 13), it is our 

94 



The Two Baptisms 

privilege to so walk daily and hourly in the 
power of the Spirit that the carnal nature is 
kept in the place of death. But this is not the 
baptism with the Spirit, neither is it the eradica- 
tion of the sinful nature. It is not something 
done once for all, it is something that must be 
momentarily maintained. 'Walk in the Spirit 
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.' 
(Gal. v:16.) "While insisting that the baptism 
with the Spirit is primarily for the purpose of 
empowering for service), it should be added that 
the baptism is accomplished by a great moral 
uplift. (See Acts ii: 44-46; iv: 31-35.) This 
is necessarily so, from the steps one must take 
to obtain this blessing." 

MOODY SCHOOL. 

The question is not seldom asked : "What does 
the Moody class of evangelists teach, anyway, 
concerning holiness? Are they straight on holi- 
ness or not?" Here, in Prof. Torrey, we have it 
in plain English. He means to be understood. 
He speaks for that purpose. What has h© said? 

1. There is a second work of grace, or a 
"second blessing." 

95 



Back to Pentecost 

2. This is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 

3. This baptism is not regeneration, but 
something later and fuller. 

4. This is for all Christians. All do not have 
it, but all may. 

5. This is not for cleansing from sin. 

6. He directly assails that "earnest but mis- 
taken body of people" who say it is. 

7. He declares that "not a line of Scripture 
can be adduced" to show that this is for cleans- 
ing, or for the "eradication of the sinful nature." 

8. He repeatedly declares that the baptism 
with the Spirit is for service' — "empowering for 
service," and not for cleansing. 

Before me is another book representing a dif- 
ferent class of teachers relative to this question. 
It is by a prominent man in the holiness ranks 
(lately gone to his reward), and one of the 
"earnest but mistaken body of people," as Mr. 
Torrey designates them. The book has the title: 
"The Pentecostal Baptism," by S. A. Keen, 
D.D. The book says: "Let us notice some of 
the characteristics of the cleansing this pente- 
costal baptism accomplishes. 

1. It is fundamental. If we might speak in 
96 



The Two Baptisms 

order of time, we would say that the first thing 
that the baptism with the Holy Ghost does is 
to cleanse the heart. This is its primal work. 
"I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
shall be clean." The gift of the Holy Ghost is 
first of all purifying. Peter affirms in Acts xv: 
8, 9, that this gift, bestowed upon the apostles 
and on the household of Cornelius was in both 
cases cleansing in its effect. The cleansing is 
not antecedent to, but co-incident with, the in- 
dwelling of the Holy Ghost as its source. 

We are more particular to note this, for we 
find some writing and speaking as if the sancti- 
fication of the Spirit and the filling of the Holy 
Ghost were different things, in effect making 
the indwelling of the Spirit a third blessing. 
Whereas cleansing, like renewing and empower- 
ing, is a result of the personal incoming of the 
Holy Ghost to the soul of the believer. He Him- 
self is the "clean water" that cleanses. He is 
the "refining fire" that sanctifies the whole. It 
is the more important to know that the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost is a cleansing power; for 
there is a teaching quite current just now which 
disclaims any purifying efficacy in the gift of 

97 



Back to Pentecost 

the Holy Ghost, and regards it exclusively as a 
spiritually empowering presence. Hence, we 
hear much of the "baptism of power/' and the 
"baptism for work," "power for service," and the 
like. The gift of the Holy Ghost is all this when 
received; but this first of all by cleansing the 
heart, that it may be a vessel unto honor pre- 
pared for the Master's use. 

2. It is complete. Whatever degree of cleans- 
ing is effected by the birth of the Spirit, it is 
initial and partial, not final nor consummate. 
The baptism with the Holy Ghost consummates, 
finishes the work of cleansing. The complete- 
ness of the cleansing, which the indwelling of 
the Spirit effects, is forcibly taught in the text 
above by the significant language used. The 
repetition of the adjective "clean" means per- 
fectly clean. It is an idiom of the original 
Hebrew, that when a word of the same kind, 
such as a noun, verb, or adjective is repeated in 
the same construction, it expresses the idea of 
completeness; so that the force of the text is, 
"cleansing, I will cleanse you," or "ye shall be 
thoroughly clean." Then the little word "all" 
is what grammarians designate the final all, 

98, 



The Two Baptisms 

which means the last, the end, conveying the 
idea of finished — the last touch. "When the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost is come, it cleanses 
to the finishing — the being rid of all filthiness 
and all idols. The baptism with the Holy Ghost 
and fire electrocutes the old man sin by a light- 
ning stroke that leaves not a vestige or a taint of 
his uncleanness in the soul. The scope of the 
cleansing is as noteworthy as the extent of its 
not only all, but all in every direction — "all 
idols, all filthiness." The Apostle Paul puts it 
into this concrete form : "From all filthiness of 
the flesh and Spirit." 

There is real power not Pentecostal. Apart 
from and prior to the Pentecost, or the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost, the disciples had genuine 
power. This seems to be forgotten, and by not 
a few who see in the gift of the Spirit at the 
Pentecost nothing but power for service, or see 
that chiefly. Before Pentecost there was and is 
genuine power! If we remember the original 
commission given to the apostles of our Lord 
we see this. It is distinctly said that "He gave 
them power against unclean spirits, to cast them 
out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all 
• 99 



Back to Pentecost 

manner of disease." And this power was not a 
little used by them, for Mark says: "And they 
went out, and preached that men should repent, 
and they cast out many devils, and anointed with 
oil many that were sick, and healed them." 

This same power was given unto the larger 
company of Christ's workers — "the seventy" — 
who later returned declaring that even devils 
were subject unto them. 

So here was a genuine power had and handled 
before the Pentecost. Pentecost was an added 
power. To these who already had the power 
granted in the first commission, Jesus said : "Ye 
shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." So there was a double 
gift of power — that before the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost and that which came then. 

And that which was given them before Pen- 
tecost was particularly power for service — power 
to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all manner. 
of sickness and all manner of diseases. It was 
also power to proclaim the kingdom at hand, to 
cleanse lepers, and even raise the dead. "Was 
not this power? Was this not a genuine and 
generous power? If large emphasis is to be 

100 



The Two Baptisms 

placed on "power for service" why not get 
proof-texts here? and before the Pentecost! But 
real power does not imply great grace. These 
very apostles are in evidence here. They seemed 
to have, in many respects, generous degrees of 
power, but were wanting in corresponding meas- 
ures of grace, though they certainly had some. 

If we turn to Paul's first letter to the Co- 
rinthians we find the gifts of the Spirit very 
generally and generously in that Church. There 
were the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith; gifts 
of healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues and such 
like, but these Corinthians were not conspicuous 
for grace, though they certainly had some. 

It would seem reasonable then to infer, if we 
were left without positive statement concerning 
it, that if there is an added gift of power it 
would be to supply their lack, which was a lack 
of grace, or a lack of a knowledge of Christ's 
fuller salvation! Their power to do was more 
prominent than their power to be. Their miracle 
conquest was more pronounced than was their 
moral character. They needed then the power 
of grace more than the power of greatness! 
And this was what came to them when the 

101 



Back to Pentecost 

power of Pentecost came — power to testify for 
Christ everywhere and always. This demands 
knowledge of Christ, and this is spiritual. Jesus 
is primarily not a devil-driver, nor a disease-de- 
stroyer, nor a miracle-manager, but a Saviour! 
The highest power He bestows is power unto 
salvation! Paul said the Gospel was the power 
of God u unto salvation" Indeed Paul suggests 
that the supreme power of the Gospel is seen 
not in outward doing, but in inward being — not 
in human conquest, but in human character, 
when he says: "Strengthened with all might, 
according to His glorious power, unto all 
patience and long suffering with joyfulness." 
All patience and long suffering the great exhibi- 
tion of Divine power! 

FINAL APPEAL. 

As we have seen, there is striking disagree- 
ment among good and intelligent men as to the 
import of Pentecost — what it does do for one. 
Why this disagreement? For both claim the 
Pentecost, and both claim different subjective 
results — that it does not cleanse the heart from 
sinfulness and that it does. Both then can 

102 



The Two Baptisms 

judge from experience; and both declare their 
experience — one says, "it does not cleanse me;" 
the other says, "it does cleanse me." It cer- 
tainly cannot do both — one cannot have the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost and not have 
cleansing with it, and the other have it with the 
cleansing. That would be confusion indeed. 

Experience then cannot settle the question. 
It may in certain instances settle it with the in- 
dividual as to what it is to him, and even when 
it ought not to so settle it; and it may not with 
another, when it should. For instance: If one 
has received what he calls the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost, and does not find the "remains of 
sin" gone, he may conclude, from his own ex- 
perience, that that baptism does not eradicate the 
old sin-nature, and thus conclude because he in- 
terprets the doctrine by his experience, which he 
should not do. On the other hand, one may 
have the genuine baptism with the Spirit, and 
therefore find all the old sin-principle gone, but 
who may wrongly interpret the doctrine, be- 
cause of such declarations as Prof. Torrey makes, 
and thus lose his hold on the Spirit for himself, 
and thus lose his experience of cleansing; when 

103 



Back to Pentecost 

he should have said, that "this baptism removes 
all carnality, not primarily because it has for me, 
but because God's Word declares it does, and it 
is true in my case." The final appeal with him 
is to God's own Word, and his experience in- 
terpreted by it. 

As valuable as experience is, it is not the final 
court of appeal. It would prove too much some- 
times. Here, for instance, is a person who says : 
"I prayed to God to forgive my sins, and give 
me a new heart. He did it, and I am enabled 
to rejoice in this new life." But another says: 
"I asked God to forgive my sins, and I have 
never felt any change, and have no evidence 
that God hears and answers prayer." If final 
appeal relative to this matter is experience, we 
would be left in poor plight, for the experience 
of one is directly opposite that of the other. 

The final appeal is God's written Word. 
What does it say as to God hearing and answer- 
ing prayer for forgiveness of sins? God does 
not say He will forgive sins because one has 
claimed to have his sins forgiven, but one has 
his sins forgiven because God's Word so declares. 
It is the court of final appeal. Therefore, the 

104 



The Two Baptisms 

man who was not heard, was not, not because 
God does not hear, but for some reason in him- 
self. 

This same holds concerning the two classes of 
people relative to the question of the baptism 
with the Holy Ghost. What does God say? 
Not now what has man experienced or has not ex- 
perienced, but what does God's written Word 
declare? We are not to bow before Prof. 
Torrey's experience or teaching relative to this 
matter as being the best or last thing, nor to that 
of Dr. Keen, but bow before God's word! If 
Prof. Torrey sought the baptism with the Spirit 
as "power for service," and got a real blessing 
from God, but did not get "heart cleansing," 
then, he did not get the baptism with the Spirit, 
or the baptism with the Spirit is not heart cleans- 
ing. If Dr. Keen sought the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost for heart cleansing, and got it, as he 
thinks, either he is mistaken, or the baptism with 
the Spirit cleanses the heart. Both these Chris- 
tian ministers cannot be right! 
gob's word. 

How shall it be determined? By God's own 
Word. There is no question with these brethren 

105 



Back to Pentecost 

as to the disciples being genuinely regenerated 
before the baptism which came to them — both 
teach they were, and they agree, that the bap- 
tism with the Spirit was a definite work after 
their regeneration. "What this baptism was to 
them the Word of God must settle. 

In John xvii we have the Lord's prayer for 
the disciples, the night before the crucifixion. 
In this prayer He clearly recognizes that they 
are genuinely regenerate Christians, for He says 
that God gave them to Him "out of the world;" 
He says they received His words, and that they 
knew "surely" that He came from God, and that 
God sent Him; He prays for them in contra- 
distinction from "the world;" He declares that 
these disciples are not of the world, even as He 
is not, and because they are not, the world hates 
them; He then prays for them, and for what? 
Surely not for what they have already! His 
burden was for their sanctiftcation. "Sanctify 
them." If language means anything, they were 
not sanctified in the sense Jesus here uses the 
term. If to be sanctified is to be separated 
from the world, or consecrated to Christian 
service, as certain insist is all it means, it is 

106 



The Two Baptisms 

strange language, for they were all this already. 
For them to have this prayer answered in their 
behalf was surely to get a sanctification in ad- 
vance of that of separation or consecration. This 
much is clear. Sanctification is purification as 
well, or making holy. He seems then to be 
praying for holiness, or for heart cleansing. 
How was this to be effected? In Luke xxiv it 
is said that they were to have the promise of the 
Father bestowed upon them and should "tarry 
in the city of Jerusalem until endued with power 
from on high." This was the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost. Luke farther says (Acts i: 5, 8), 
"John truly baptized with water; but ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
hence. But ye shall receive power after that 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Farther 
he says (ii: 1, 4), "And when the day of Pente- 
cost was fully come, they were all with one 
accord in one place. And they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost." 

Here is an assurance of the "promise of the 
Father," baptism with the Holy Ghost, and 
"power from on high." Pentecost was the ful- 
fillment. What was Pentecost to them then? 

107 



Back to Pentecost 

Turning to Acts xi we find another coming of 
the Holy Ghost. It was upon Cornelius and his 
military houshold. This Eoman officer was not 
an impenitent and unregenerate man, but a de- 
vout worshipper of God, and who himself knew 
"peace by Jesus Christ." (x: 36.) 

While Peter was preaching to this "devout 
man/ 5 this one whose prayer and alms reached 
heaven, this man "accepted of God," this giver 
of "much alms," this God-fearing man, and who 
prayed to God always, "the Holy Ghost fell on 
all them that heard the Word," and Peter says 
it was as on the disciples "at the beginning" 
(Acts xi: 15), and he farther says that this was 
the fulfillment of the promised baptism with 
the Holy Ghost. (Acts xi: 16.) In Acts xv: 
8, 9, Peter forever settles just what Pentecost, 
or the baptism with the Spirit, was, when he says 
that God gave Cornelius and his household "the 
Holy Ghost even as He did unto us; and put no 
difference between us and them, purifying their 
hearts by faith." The gift of the Holy Ghost 
then did give the disciples at the Pentecost and 
did give Cornelius and his household pure 
hearts, or cleanse them from sin. 

108 



The Two Baptisms 

May we not wonder and be amazed that an 
intelligent man and preacher and teacher should 
declare, with an open Bible before him, that 
"not a line of Scripture can be adduced to show 
that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the 
eradication of the sinful nature ? That the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit is not for the purpose 
of cleansing from sin?" 

ANTAGONISM. 

Nothing means so much to the devil as heart 
cleansing. This gracious work removes the last 
of his sin-work from the human soul, and leaves 
him with no territory-rights. It is the crown- 
ing work of Jesus. Nothing so magnifies Christ 
and nothing so minifies the devil. Hence 
toward nothing does the devil so array himself 
as against heart cleansing by the blood of Jesus. 

This we do well to remember. All preachers 
and teachers of God's Word need fear, lest we 
come unconsciously under the influence of the 
devil, in our interpretation of the question of 
heart cleansing from all sin. We may depend 
upon his presence, upon his suggestions, and, if 
permitted, upon his inspiration here. 

It becomes many to most seriously ask them- 
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Back to Pentecost 

selves, "Why am I finding myself resisting the 
idea of heart cleansing? Is it from a love of in- 
ward sin, or is it because God cannot cleanse it 
away now, or is it because He will not do it? 
Am I measuring God's ability by what only He 
has done for me and thus making my own ex- 
perience the standard of privilege for all in 
grace? Does the Bible clearly teach that the 
blood does not cleanse from all sin? Why am I 
taking sides against Jesus' power to save unto 
the uttermost? Why am I giving the devil and 
his works such large place, in magnifying the 
ruin above the remedy I" 

Such questions would not hurt. They might 
help. 

John's baptism was definite; so is Christ's. 
John employed water upon suitable candidates; 
Jesus as definitely bestows the Spirit upon those 
conditioned to receive Him. As certain came 
to John to be baptized with water and received 
it at his hands, so may certain come to Jesus 
for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and receive 
it. "For John truly baptized with water; but 
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not 
many days hence." 

110 



BE TILLED. 

There are two standards of Christian experi- 
ence. The common standard — that adopted by 
the masses, and the Bible standard — that laid 
down in the Word of God. 

No reader of the Bible and observer of men 
and things can fail to see that the usual idea of 
the Christian life — what it is — is a lower one 
than taught in the Word of God. 

The pious Brainard once said to a friend: 
"Oh, dear sir, do not think it enough to live at 
the rate of commonplace Christianity. " Strict- 
ly speaking, Christianity is never "common- 
place." It always involves the supernatural, 
and that never can be commonplace. 

And yet Brainard was right. Not a little 
that passes for Christiantity is exceedingly com- 
monplace, as it is not above or beyond the at- 
tainments of unaided human nature. 

Paul, as others, clearly presents Christian 
privilege. In his Ephesian letter, the fifth 
chapter at the eighteenth verse, he commands: 

ill 



Back to Pentecost 

"Be filled with the Spirit." He presents the 
duty and privilege emphatically by contrast: 
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is ex- 
cess; but be filled with the Spirit." 

SPIRIT INTOXICATED. 

What a strange figure by which to teach spir- 
itual truth. See one drunk with wine. That 
one no longer is his former or natural self. He 
has taken into his system that foreign to it — 
an intoxicant — and has become drunken. He 
no longer thinks, imagines, loves, hates, wills 
and acts his former self — he is acted upon. He 
is ruled by the behest of that other than himself . 

Be not that, says Paul, but be filled with the 
Spirit. As one drunk with wine is no longer 
his old and former self, so be ye dominated by 
the divine Spirit! Think, imagine, love, hate, 
will and act under the inspiration of God — in- 
dwelling. 

Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, coined a unique 
and forceful expression from this Pauline utter- 
ance — "Spirit intoxicated saints." 

Paul's direct statements in this same epistle 
are unmistakable as to Christian privilege. 

112 



Be Filled 

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before 
the foundation of the world, that we should be 
holy and without blame before Him in love." 
This divine idea is far from the human. Holi- 
ness, blamelessness in love before God is the 
Bible standard. 

Ask the question: What is it God demands 
of men under the atonement? and will the gen- 
eral answer be holiness? But this is Paul's 
answer. 

The Bible standard is holiness. JSTothing is 
in the Bible as a duty and privilege, if holiness 
is not. Holiness is so plainly taught that he 
who runs may read it there. An unsaved law- 
yer of our acquaintance, but who respected his 
wife's confession of holiness, overheard some 
churchmen denying the privilege of holiness and 
its scripturalness, also deriding the confessors of 
this grace, and he said to them: "Gentlemen, 
you are neighbors of mine. You know me. I, 
as you know, am no Christian — I am not like 
yourselves, a churchman; but, gentlemen, I have 
a Bible and read it some. If holiness is not in 
your Bible as one's duty and privilege, nothing 
is!" Exactly. And holiness is a kindred term 

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Back to Pentecost 

to being filled with the Spirit. They mean the 
same. This is the 

NORMAL STATE 

of God's saints. To be filled with the Spirit is 
the divine provision for all in "the last days" 
of the Spirit's dispensation. "And it shall come 
to pass afterward (' k in the last days"), that I will 
pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons 
and your daughters shall prophesy, your old 
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall 
see visions : and also upon the servants and upon 
the handmaids in those days will I pour out My 
Spirit." 

The fullness of the Spirit was not only thus 
provided, but the fullness seems to have been 
appropriated. To look into the New Testa- 
ment and study the experiences of men and 
women who lived after the historic Pentecost, 
is to find them generally in the experience of 
being filled with the Spirit. This seems to have 
been general rather than exceptional. Of John 
the Baptist it is said: He "shall be filled with 
the Holy Ghost." Of his mother the record is, 
"And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy 

114 



Be Filled 

Ghost;" and of his father, "And his father, 
Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Gho-st." A 
whole family. And note what they were before 
their fullness. "And they were both right- 
eous before God, walking in all the command- 
ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." 
Righteous before God; walking in all the com- 
mandments and ordinances of the Lord blame- 
less. And this before Pentecost! Thus we see 
who, and who only may have their Pentecost. 

SPEAKING FOR GOD. 

It is profitable to note here in passing, a 
striking accompaniment of the fullness of the 
Spirit — speaking for God. 

How easy to talk when one has something to 
say. "When one is filled he has. How a wine- 
filled man talks. So does one Spirit-filled. 
How far from truth and how closely allied with 
falsehood are the mutterings of an intoxicated 
man; how far from error and how allied to truch 
are the utterings of a Spirit-filled man. Wine 
is the spirit of falsehood; the Holy Ghost is the 
Spirit of truth. Both inspire. Pentecost pro- 
duces utterance. They spake. See Elizabeth: 

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Back to Pentecost 

"And she spake out with a loud voice." She 
spake out and with a loud voice. Not with shy, 
timorous utterance, but with humble, holy bold- 
ness uttered she the pent-up joy of her soul. 

Women speaking out for God. As a class, 
they seem to be able enough to give expression 
to their feelings save upon the theme of all 
themes. How hesitant are our women in speak- 
ing out for God. We dislike to mention it, but 
how self-conscious and low-voiced are our good 
sisters even when they give their testimony for 
their Lord in His house. Oh, how Pentecost 
delivers from fear of all surroundings and of 
one's own voice, and grants a new tongue to 
hesitant souls! The great miracle of Pentecost, 
in the gift of tongues, w^as not power to speak 
in foreign languages, but power to tell of the 
wonderful works of God. And Zacharias being 
filled with the Holy Ghost "prohpesied, say- 
ing." He spake also. 

Coming to the historic Pentecost, it is said, 
"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and began to speak." One of our brethren says 
that "there is no record of their ever stopping." 
"Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said." 

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Be Filled 

Thus speaking for God marks the genuine 
Pentecost. 

There are two classes of people in the Church 
among the genuinely good people; those who 
can hardly refrain from much testimony, they 
have so much to say; and those who are apt to 
refuse testimony, they have so little. Some can 
hardly stop talking for Christ, they are so full; 
while others can hardly begin, they are so empty. 
With the one class "the cross" is not to speak; 
quite unlike the other class, who Hake, up the 
cross and sveah a word for Christ." 

Fiery exhortation is a spiritual gift. Ex- 
hortation comes with Pentecost. "Whatever of 
it may be employed apart from Pentecost, it is 
largely a human power, professionally employed 
and seldom profitably employed. Exhortation 
was a prominent and powerful feature in the ex- 
ercises of the early Church and in early Method- 
ism. It is largely a lost power from the Church 
of to-day. But whenever the Church receives 
its Pentecost there is manifestly present this 
power. Fiery exhortation stirring the Church 
and startling sinners marks the work as genu- 
inely spiritual. How often the old-time class 

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Back to Pentecost 

leader in Methodism was a powerful extorter. 
Stirring appeals were frequent from his lips. 
One of the reasons for the decline of the "class 
meeting" is the lack of suitable leaders. How 
scarce is class-leader timber, we pastors in 
Methodism know. Pentecost goes a long way 
to furnishing men who will do this important 
work well, and no person however well furnished 
otherwise can make a genuinely useful class 
leader without it. 

NOT IDEAL. 

We affirm again that the privilege granted 
by the ascended Lord to be filled with the Spirit, 
seems to have been generally shared in by the 
saints mentioned in Xew Testament record. Fol- 
lowing John the Baptist and his saintly parents, 
are not only the Church, as such, present at 
Jerusalem to receive the promised Comforter, 
but the converts of their great revivals were 
soon "all filled with the Holy Ghost." 

In selecting the office-bearers in the early 
Church they were required to choose men "full 
of the Holy Ghost," and had no difficulty in 
finding a full hoard of that sort. Saul, the com- 
ing Paul, the peerless Christian of the ages, was 

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Be Filled 

allowed to enter upon no work for the Master 
till "filled with the Holy Ghost." Barnabas, it 
is said, "was a good man, and full of the Holy 
Ghost." Note the order: A good man first, 
then full of the Holy Ghost, Unto this fullness 
none are eligible till in the Gospel sense they 
are "good." Regeneration, the begetting the 
inner principle of righteousnes, ever conditions 
the reception of the Holy Ghost. 

Turning to a church far away in Asia Minor, 
we read that "the disciples" there "were filled 
with joy and with the Holy Ghost." And all 
this was in harmony with the declaration of the 
inspired Beter, who said: "For the promise is 
unto you and to your children, and to all that 
are afar off." 

There is a statement by Luke in Acts 9: 31, 
which seems to show clearly that the churches 
of that period were generally filled with the 
Spirit. He says: "Then had the churches rest 
throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, 
and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the 
Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, 
were multiplied." The churches of all those 
sections, even of Samaria, walked in the fear of 

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Back to Pentecost 

God. Fear is a tiling of reverence, of obedi- 
ence, of love — filial fear. This these churches 
had. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." 
"By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." 
This was their fear. Not a servile thing — the 
feeling of underlings, of slaves, but of sons. 
But they had another experience; they walked 
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Did not 
Jesus promise the Comforter — another com- 
forter — a farther and fuller grace? This they 
had as well. And this gave them aggressive 
power — power to bring things to pass. They 
were multiplied. Here is the how of getting 
ahead as churches and as denominations! How 
can we save men? Here is the answer. How 
can we reach the masses? Here is the secret — 
let the churches walk in the fear of God and in 
the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Here is salva- 
tion from subtraction, from which we axe now 
suffering! They were multiplied! 

CLEANSING UNPOPULAR. 

What a lavish outlay of power in the Gospel. 
Incarnation, resurrection, ascension, interces- 
sion, descent of the Spirit are all and each dis- 
plays of power. And for what? — to make men 

120 



Be Filled 

holy — to make saints! The output of Gospel 
power is for the purpose of sainthood. Saint- 
hood is not so much a matter of quantity as of 
quality. Becoming a saint, or a holy one, is not 
so much getting something added as it is get- 
ting something subtracted. Not a few things 
are increased in value by making less as to size. 
Metals, many, do not have their chiefest worth 
till much of bulk is removed. This is true of 
souls. We are of enhanced value as something 
is taken away. So God says: "I will turn My 
hand upon thee, and purely (according to the 
standard of purity) purge away thy dross, and 
take away all thy tin." 

This is unpopular. Getting rid of something 
seems to hurt. But this is what sainthood 
means — there can be no fullness of the Spirit 
without it. What is it to be filled with any- 
thing? Surely to have nothing else there. 
How may a glass be said to be full of water? 
When it contains nothing save water. If there 
be sediment, sand or stones in the glass, and 
water be so poured in, even until it runs over, 
yet the glass is not full of water; nothing but 
emptying allows the glass to be filled with water. 

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Back to Pentecost 

Tc ptying the old man of sin ob; 

Here lie employs all his energy. His reas 
are serious and subtle. How frequently be | 
suades the will to side with him and allow his 
remaining in the human soul. 

Cleansing is unpopular, even in its lowest and 
material sense. How few of earth's inhabitants 
keep clean. God has covered three-fourths of 
the earth's surface with water so its great peoples 
may be free from dirt. But most d are 

for this use of wa* 

AVho of us has not seen children playing in 

highest glee with water: but when called to be 

ned up by it, what a touse! Oh, how many 

: us play meeting] H-w we are betrayed 

deftly handle truth so as not to let it have too 

relatio: - ! How we would be in- 

tent relative to our orthodoxy, bur when it 
con 3 1 the application of truth unto its great 

I divine purpose, al 

Bir e fullness. Be filled! 

is is the supreme purpose of Christ's minis- 
try on earth and in heaven. Unto this were 
we chosen l»efore the foundation of the world. 
This is God's /ore-thought. Be filled! 

m 



KEEPING THE BODY UNDER. 

"But I keep under my body, and bring it into 
subjection; lest that by any means, when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a cast- 
away." I Cor. 9: 27. 

DEFINITENESS, 

Every aimful life — every life that makes a 
course for itself — is single in the direction to 
which it is given. In the history of men and 
things, nothing stands out more clearly than that 
the men of achievement, have been what is vul- 
garly termed "one idea-men." The discoverer-, 
the students, the statesmen, the soldiers, the ed- 
ucators and the financiers of history have 
achieved success by singleness of endeavor. 

Columbus was determined to bring unknown 
lands to the map of the world; he is known in 
history as a discoverer. Wellington was a 
student of the science of war; history knows him 
as a soldier. Agassiz devoted a long life to one 

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Back to Pentecost 

department of practical science; he is known as 
a naturalist. Arnold, of Rugby, gave his 
strength to the principles and practice of educa- 
tion; he was an educator. Stewart was a 
financier. So in the lesser and humbler call- 
ings of life achievement results from definite- 
ness. 

Paul said : This one thing I do. "Few persons 
seem to recognize the difference between nar- 
row-mindedness and definiteness; between sta- 
bility, or fixity, and simple immobility. He is 
most often regarded as narrow-minded who is 
merely definitely minded; and he is regarded as 
illiberal and unprogressive who is merely stable 
and fixed in his principles. But the real truth 
is that fixity is the first and most necessary con- 
dition of progress." 

Paul's aim. 

Paul achieved success by singleness of aim. 
A higher purpose than that to which he gave 
his life none ever followed. Indeed, the God- 
man himself had no greater, for he had no other; 
He came to seek and save the lost. 

To save mankind Paid lived. He says: "For 

124 



Keeping the Body Under 

I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to 
depart, and to be with Christ; which is far 
better: 

Nevertheless to abide in. trie flesh is more 
needful for yon. 

And having this confidence, I know that T 
shall abide and continue with you all for your 
furtherance and joy of faith; surrendering the 
better for the saving and helping of others. 

The aim and intensity of his life come out 
clearly in the approach to our text: For though 
I be free from all men, yet have I made myself 
servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I 
might gain the Jews; to them that are under the 
law, as under the law, that I might gain them 
that are under the law. 

To them that are without law, as without law 
(being not without law to God, but under the 
law to Christ), that I might gain them that are 
without law. 

To the weak became I as weak, that I might 
gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, 
that I might by all means save some." "To save 
some" was his passion. 

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Back to Pentecost 

This must needs lead to self-denial and it did. 
"If meat/' lie says, "make my brother to offend 
(stumble) I will eat no flesh while the world 
standeth, lest I make my brother to offend/' 

In the text and context Paul expands success- 
ful Christian living. He employs familiar 
figures and those that are forceful. The Cor- 
inthians would fully appreciate them. "Know 
ye not that they which run in a race run all, but 
one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may 
obtain. 

And every man that striveth for the mastery 
is temperate in all things. Now they do it to 
obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incor- 
ruptible. 

I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight 
I, not as one that beateth the air. 

But I keep under my body and bring it into 
subjection." 

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE. 

"I keep under my body." This emphasizes 
discipline. Christian discipline is the training, 
the developing of the character by exercise, and 
it may be by severe exercise. Paul himself was 
a rugged Christian. He knew rugged service 

126 



Keeping the Body Under 

and he used rugged terms to define it. "En- 
dure/' is frequent in his writings — to remain 
firm under trial, to bear with patience all that 
assails — to last. This was Paul in character. 
This was what Christian life meant and means. 

The discipline, particularly, of faith — the 
means of life. Discipline never secures life; it 
develops it. Life, spiritual life, is a gift and 
not an acquisition. But when possessed, may 
be developed. 

Here, for instance, is a youth who has some 
•constitutional disease, like consumption. Sup- 
pose he were instantly and permanently healed 
— made perfectly well. There would be no 
substitute for food and exercise in gaining 
strength, and conserving it. Though he has be- 
come well he must eat proper food, and exercise 
himself in order to continue health and develop 
strength. 

So with, the spirit-nature. Holiness is a great 
spiritual epoch. It is a wonderful transition — 
a Divine change from illness to health. And 
health carries the idea of strength; but the 
strength in holiness is relative. It is marked, 
contrasted with one's state prior to holiness, but 

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Back to Pentecost 

little, compared with what the soul may take on 
in the development of life. 

But in discipline or development we would 
not suggest or allow irTcsomeness. The yoke h 
easy when on right. Holiness is getting the 
yoke on right. The commandments are not 
grievous. 

"Beneath his easy yoke they move; 

With all their heart and strength agree 
In the sweet labor of his love." 

Paul was on the stretch for his crown. What- 
ever would hinder his running was laid aside. 
Whatever would speed him on his way was 
taken up. He must win. To this end every- 
thing must be subjected. 

REPRESSION. 

JSTot a few think they find in our text a proof 
for the idea of repression. They say: "People 
get ahead of Paul. They say they get rid of the 
old sinful nature, but Paul said he kept his body 
under." 

If keeping the body under means the repres- 
sion of the "old man/ 3 let us bear in mind that 

128 



Keeping the Body Under 

Paul succeeded. He says: "I keep my body 
under. I do not aim, merely, to do it, I do it. 9 ' 
If our friends who teach "repression not annihi- 
lation" will bear in mind that Paul repressed, 
and will teach and allow even this treatment 
of the old man, it will be far in advance of much 
we have to hear concerning "the bad boy having 
the good boy down." 

But Paul says nothing here about the "old 
man," or our carnal nature. He is not treating 
the sin-question directly in this passage. He 
does not say he keeps sin down, or his carnal 
nature, and he does not mean that. He says 
"body." 

He uses the Greek soma and not sarx, which 
does not introduce directly the question of sin. 
In Romans the eighth chapter he does discuss 
the sin-question and employs entirely different 
terms. He says: "For they that are after the 
flesh do mind the things of the flesh. * * * 
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please 
God." 

Flesh is quite a different term than body and 
has in Scripture a decidedly different meaning. 
It stands there, prominently, for carnality. 

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Back to Pentecost 

One would not say, for Kom. 8 : 8, "So then they 
that are in the lody cannot please God." 

Paul's soma does not mean sin or carnality. 
When Joseph "begged the body of Jesus" of 
Pilate, he was not trying to get possession of 
Jesus' sin or carnality. He begged the soma of 
Jesus — his literal body. 

The soul, or man, has two sets of faculties; 
the superior and the inferior — the affections, in- 
telligence and will; and the appetites, instincts 
and desires of the body. Sin is not in the use 
of any of these, but in their abuse. These lower 
belong to man, as do the higher, and have their 
place. These Paul kept under. The legiti- 
mate demands of his physical nature he held 
firmly, faithfully and fully in restraint — kept 
them in their proper place. 

I lunched with a friend in a cafe in Boston. 
I quickly decided what I would have, but he 
hesitated. He waited so long the waiter left us 
to get my order. While gone my friend said to 
me : "Here is mock turtle soup. I am very fond 
of it, but it always hurts me, and I ought not to 
eat it." The waiter returned with my lunch, 
and having placed it on the table my friend said: 

130 



Keeping the Body Under 

"Bring me mock turtle soup" and turning to me 
said: "I'll eat it if it kills me." He did not keep 
his body under. 

This, here, is Paul's thought. Not solely of 
appetite, of course, but the demands — the legiti- 
mate demands of the body. 

CONTINUOUS CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE 

is conditioned upon Christian discipline; the will 
choosing as judgment directs secures a clear 
conscience, and a clear conscience is a pro- 
nounced factor in Christian experience. I 
"bring it into subjection" suggests a real and 
rugged discipline; not of violent and virulent 
animal passions, but of normal and more or less 
active physical demands. 

When that young man chose the soup and ate 
it, against his judgment, he committed sin as 
.truly as though he had stolen the silver spoons 
from the table! His condemnation was as 
real both before his own conscience and before 
God! We are not saying his sin was as great, 
but as real. 

Indeed Paul employs this very figure in the 
discussion of a like matter. "Happy is he that 

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Back to Pentecost 

condemneth not himself in that thing which he 
alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned 
(condemned) if he eat, because he eateth not of 
faith." 

The grace of holiness girds the will on the 
throne of the soul. It does not require the ex- 
perience of heart holiness to enthrone the will — 
to give it its ascendant place in the soul of man 
— to make it dominant over all the lower nature 
— but rather holiness removes the untoward, the 
subtle, the perilous inner influences which seek 
to> swerve the will from its right courses. Unless 
the action of the will is right in regeneration, 
there is wilful sin. Regeneration never allows 
wilful sin. 

God's law is laid upon the entire man. It Is 
laid upon his feet, his lungs, his nerves, his 
stomach, as it is upon his conscience. God says 
that we shall not wear cramping shoes for pur- 
poses of making our feet more comely; God says 
one shall not refuse suitable underwear for the 
protection of life and lung, nor dress the human 
waist so as to defeat the ministries of mother- 
hood, in order to have the form more shapely; 
God says one shall not work seven days in the 

132 



Keeping the Body Under 

week, in any service, and burn out nerve-force 
ahead of time; God says we shall eat and drink 
for His glory, which means giving proper care to 
the stomach, as truly, and as really, as does He 
say "thou shalt not steal." "What? know ye not 
that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye 
are not your own? 

For ye are bought with a price; therefore 
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are God's." 

The conscious violation of law brings a sense 
of guilt, it matters not what the law is. This 
is exactly Paul's teaching. His body, the 
temple of the imperishable nature — its only 
temple — he regarded as a sacred thing and 
treated it with the care and interest becoming 
the tabernacle of the soul. He even requested 
Timothy to bring along his "cloak," against the 
cold, as the winter was coming on. 

CONSTANT MODIFICATION. 

Many of us know but little. More than this 
we do not need to know in order to secure a 

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Back to Pentecost 

clean heart,- but if we keep a clean heart we mus+ 
needs walk in all light coming to us from what- 
ever source and upon whatever subject. 

This will require constant modification of our 
actions. A clean heart is one thing and a clear 
head quite another. liVe were clearly and 
blessedly sanctified before we saw it was needless 
for us to have the milkman come to our door 
Sunday morning. Circumstances did not make 
it necessary that we should have fresh milk on 
that day and we came to see we were unwit- 
tingly being a party to a form of Sabbath dese- 
cration and needless labor. Our milkman had 
many arguments, any one of which seemed good 
and sufficient to him for his calling, as he was 
"going by anyway,'' but we had to be firm be- 
cause we had light. To have yielded here 
would have shadowed our soul and resulted in 
the loss of the precious experiences of grace. 
These are not little things. Nothing is small 
which is big enough to separate one from salva- 
tion and God. 

And here is the place for wide charity, 
virile God's will is uniform and His law ever 
one and the same, all are not equal in their un- 

134 



Keeping the Body Under 

derstanding of what that will and law are. "For 
one believeth that he may eat all things; another 
who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that 
eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not 
him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for 
God hath received him." So there needs to be 
charity. We do well to keep off the judgment 
seat. If nobody has grace, in our estimation, 
save as they drink and dress as we feel we 
should, the fear is we have not a great stock of 
grace ourselves when we insist upon such judg- 
ment. Surely we must walk in our own light 
and do what we reasonably can that our farther 
light, if we have it, be shared by others and then 
rest the case. "But why dost thou judge thy 
brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy 
brother? for we shall all stand before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ." 

CROWNING. 

Continuous Christian experience conditions 
crowning, "lest that by any means, when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a cast- 
away." 

Salvation first or last is not in preaching to 

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Back to Pentecost 

other folks. One is not finally saved because 
once saved. "He that endureth to the end shall 
be saved." Though eminent one may be rejected. 
Paul was distinguished above his fellows, but 
in this he had no confidence. Salvation by per- 
sonal merit was with him of no merit. ]STot be- 
cause of labor, nor trial, nor pedigree, did he 
have hope. Truly his ministry did evidence 
more of labor, more of sacrifice, and more of 
success than any. "I labored more abundantly 
than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God 
which was with me." 

Were trials of merit? Then surely he had it. 

"'Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a 

fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in 

stripes above measure, in prison more frequent, 

in deaths oft. 

"Of the Jews five times received I forty 
stripes save one. 

"Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I 
stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and 
a day I have been in the deep. 

"In journeying often, in perils of waters, in 
perils of robbers, in perils by mine own country- 
men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the 

136 



Keeping the Body Under 

city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the 
sea, in perils among false brethren. 

"In weariness and painfulness, in watchings 
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in 
cold and nakedness. 

"Beside those things that are without, that 
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the 
churches." 

Was pedigree of value? Then not a little 
would be put down to his credit, "If any other 
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might 
trust in the flesh, I more. 

Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of 
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of 
the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee. 

Are they Hebrews? so am I Are they Israel- 
ites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? 
so am I." 

But is this his glory? "For we are the cir- 
cumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and 
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence 
in the flesh. 77 "If I must needs glory I will 
glory of the things which concern mine infirm- 
ities." Infirmity his glory and not informa- 
tion! 

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Back to Pentecost 

Again lie says : "Concerning zeal, persecuting 
the church; touching the righteousness which is 
in the law, blameless. 

But what things were gain to me, those I 
counted loss for Christ. 

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss 
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the 
loss of all things, and do count them but dung, 
that I may win Christ. 

And be found in Him, not having mine own 
righteousness, which is of the law, but that 
which is through the faith of Christ, the right- 
eousness which is of God by faith. 

That I may know Him, and the power of His 
resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffer- 
ings, being made conformable unto His death" 

FIRST AND LAST. 

Salvation first and last is of grace. It is in 
receiving Christ. "As many as received Him, 
to them gave He power to become the sons of 
God." In walking in Christ. "As ye have 
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, io 
walk ye in Him." In enduring for Christ. 

138 



Keeping the Body Under 

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good sol- 
dier of Jesus Christ." 

Paul's eye was on the crown. What was any- 
thing or all things to him to miss that? No, no. 
All were refuse compared to the crown. No 
conquest and no character; no trial and no treat- 
ment; no sorrow and no suffering sufficient, nor 
that should not be endured, only so he might be 
crowned. "This one thing I do, forgetting 
those things which are behind, and reaching 
forth unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high call- 
ing of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, 
as many as he perfect, be thus minded." 

Paul was determined to win. And he did. 
When his sun was westering; when his life's 
long labor was over; when battles many with 
demons and dogs were past; when his ministry 
had blessed peoples from Herod's seat to that of 
Caesar's; when his battle-scarred body was weak- 
ened by its years; when already in sight of the 
block where his reverent and revered head 
should fall by a blow by Nero's axman, he 
could exclaim: "I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 

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Back to Pentecost 

Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day." 

To this every energy was given. Everything 
had to play its part — body, soul and spirit put 
under contribution that he might 

BE CROWKED. 



3 40 



Upper-Room Believers* 

BY DR. EDGAR M LEVY. 



Price, Postpaid, 25 Cents. 

74 PAGES, NEATLY BOUND, WITH POR- 
TRAIT OF THE AUTHOR. 



A book of seven addresses, as follows : " The Upper- 
Room Believers," "A Vision of the Glorified," •' The 
Child-Like Spirit," Our Lord's Second Coming," " Saints 
in Caesars Household," " Seeing the King's Face," 
"Take Time to be Holy." 

Dr. Daniel Steele writes: "Every one of these ad- 
dresses is appetizing, because full of the very marrow of 
the gospel. We are especially pleased with our brother's 
sober treatment of ' Our Lord's Second Coming.' Ap- 
propriate indeed is the last address, 'Take Time to be 
Holy,' in the midst of the rush and push of American 
life. This inexpensive book should be scattered broad- 
cast over the English-speaking wotld." 

Rev. William McDonald says • "Dr. Levy has fur- 
nished a book that must bless every Christian heart that 
reads i f . It is eminently evangelical in sentimert, 
charmingly Christ-like in spirit, and wonderfully uplift- 
ing and inspiring to a holy life." 



CHRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Limited, 
921 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



141 



HOLINESS TEXT BOOK. 

AGENTS .— oc# # o 18,000 Copies Sd 4 

WANTED. ' T 0CLL5. in about a year. 

One Man Sold 50 Copies in One Bay. 



366 Texts. Selected by Rev. John Thompson, 
366 Comments. Written by Rev. E. I. D. Pepper. 



Bound in Cloth. 107 Pages. Price, postpaid, 30 cents. 

A Book of Bible Texts, bearing directly upon the subject 
of holiness. One for each day in the year. A morning 
morsel of Divine truth that will help you throughout each 
day of spiritual life. 

The logical as well as topical arrangement of the texts 
makes a book of infinite interest to Evangelists and 
Christian workers. 

Rev. WM, JONES, special editorial writer of 
the "Christian Witness," says: 

"There is nothing like this little book. It is adapted 
to Christian life and necessities of Christians, and to the 
young minister it is both a commentary and a treatise 
on Homiletics— there is, as is often the case with Dr. 
Pepper, a whole sermon in a single paragraph." 



TWENTY-ONE TOPICS: 

1. Holiness Possible. 13. Scriptural Holiness. 

2. Freedom from Sin Pos- I4> A sanctified Ministry. 

fJn^fWAU..*. J 5- The Human Side of 

3. Call to Holiness. a TTnlitiM« 

4. Holiness Commanded. . ^ u ° T .? ~- „ . 

5. Exhortations to Holi- l6 - TheWitnessoftheHoly 

ness Spirit to Holiness. 

6. Holiness Promised. 17. Characteristics of the 

7. Motives to Holiness. Saints. 

8. Prayer for Holiness. z % m Testimony to Holiness. 

9. Discouragements in Danger of loosing Holi- 

Seekmg Holiness. * n * ss 

\l ^s t U ou S r a sa C ni: fi tf fi r er. - Preservation in Holi- 

12. The Holy Ghost our ness * 

- Sanctifier. 21. Maturity in Holiness. 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Limited, 
021 Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa. 



142 



HULDA: 

The Pentecostal Prophetess. 

BY 

BYRON J. REES. 



Contains 150 pages. Bound in cloth. 
Price 50 cents, postpaid. 



A short life story, and seventeen sermons of Hulda 
A. Rees. with her portrait. This book needs no other 
introduction, than for the reader to know that sev- 
enteen of the sermons, which Sister Rees preached 
with such accompaniments of power and blessing, 
compose the greater portion of it. The life story 
is short, yet comprehensive ; the writer of it avoid- 
ing anything of a eulogistic nature, and making the 
facts of the life serve as an appropriate introduction 
to the character back of the sermons. 

Mrs. E. E. Williams in a beautiful poem (which 
is a part of the book), gives refreshing glimpses in- 
to the character of Sister Rees. 

Esther T. Pritchard, has also written a "tribute" 
glowing with fervor and truth, 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD CO., Limited. 
921 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



143 



R> 



OUNDS IN THE 



Q 



OLDEN LADDER. 



By ELIJAH P. BROWN, 

Known to the Public as the " RAM'S HORN MAN." 

272 PAGES. 

A score of full-page illustrations ; seventeen sparkling 
chapters on the Lord's Prayer, together with the au- 
thor's experience, " Into and Out of Infidelity." 

PERSONAL OPINIONS. 

Margaret E. Todd, New Jersey : 

" I never read so much in so few words. It inspires one to do 
their best. I have given it to each member of my Sunday-school 

class." 

Rev. James D. Acker, Philadelphia, Pa. : 

" I have just read Rounds in the Golden Ladder, and I con- 
sider it one of the best books published during the nineteenth 
century. Every Christian should read it." 

Rev. A. H. Leo, Frankford, Pa. : 

"Mr. Brown's book is very characteristic of him. It was re- 
markable the attention it Secured before our Sabbath- school when 
chapters were read as a part of the opening service." 

PRICE, POSTPAID, $1.00. 

SIX COPIES sent to agents, transportation charges paid by us, 
for $3.60. 

ADDRESS THE PUBLISHERS, 

Christian Standard Co., Ltd., 

921 ARCH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

Mr. S. M. Shook, Pataskala, Ohio, who was one of the first to 
take an agency for this book, sent us a first order for 10 copies, and 
five days later his second order came for 12 copies more, making 22 
copies in five days, and at the rate of discount which we allow he 
earns a handsome profit for himself. You can do the same. 

144 



SEP ' 5 1900 



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